The UK, France and Germany will hold another round of nuclear talks with Iran in Geneva on Jan 13.

Kazem Gharib Abadi, the country’s deputy foreign minister, confirmed the meeting in comments to the Islamic Republic News Agency, in which he said Iran was “not focusing on predictions at this time”.

He added: “As we have stated before, what is happening now are talks, not negotiations.”

The planned talks in Switzerland come after Tehran began accelerating its nuclear programme in recent months, leading to condemnation from Paris, London and Berlin.

In a joint statement on Dec 18, the three countries said Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium had reached “unprecedented levels, again without any credible civilian justification”.

The statement said Iran’s actions had given it the capability to “rapidly produce sufficient fissile material for multiple nuclear weapons”. 

It added that Tehran’s ramping up of its installation of advanced centrifuges was “yet another damaging step in Iran’s efforts to undermine the nuclear deal that they claim to support”.