PARIS: The families of four Europeans imprisoned for several years by Iran on Tuesday accused the EU of ignoring the plight of their loved ones who they say are held hostage by the regime.

The open letter by the families to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell comes as little sign emerges of a breakthrough in talks on the Iranian nuclear program which activists believe could speed their release.

“We, the families of French, Swedish, German, and Austrian citizens, who have been illegally detained by the Iranian regime, are outraged that the European Union seems to be ignoring these crimes,” the families said in the letter.

“All of them wonder whether EU officials have forgotten them and how much longer they will have to endure this ordeal,” they added.

The letter was signed by the sister of French citizen Benjamin Briere, the wife of Austrian Kamran Ghaderi, the wife of Swede Ahmadreza Djalali and the daughter of German citizen Jamshid Sharmahd.

Briere has been detained for two years while Ghaderi has been held for almost seven years.

Djalali has been in jail for six years and sentenced to death on espionage charges while, after some two years in jail, Sharmahd is being tried on charges that may see him sentenced to death.

“These European citizens have been subjected to torture, grossly unfair trials based on fabricated charges, without access to legal counsel or proper medical care,” said the letter.

“All of them are held hostage by a dictatorial regime that does not even abide by the minimum standard of international legal and human rights.”

Iran insists the foreign nationals are being held fully in line with the law but campaigners counter that in the past the country has readily released foreigners in prisoner swaps or in apparent exchange for funds.

Borrell said on Monday he was “less confident” about efforts to restore the 2015 nuclear deal, which was abandoned by former US President Donald Trump in 2018.

According to the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, there are currently some 20 dual nationals and foreign nationals with US or European passports detained in Iran.

Iran said on Tuesday that, in its protracted talks with major powers to restore its tattered 2015 nuclear deal, it is insisting on resolving “four topics.”

The four points, addressed by the government spokesman, relate to US assurances a new deal will hold, relief from punishing sanctions, and to the UN monitoring of Iranian sites.

“As Iran’s president (Ebrahim Raisi) has said, we have pursued and will pursue four topics in the negotiations,” the spokesman, Ali Bahadori-Jahromi, told a press briefing.

On the first point, he said that “the guarantees must be reassuring,” referring mainly to Tehran’s demand that future US administrations won’t scrap the deal again, as Donald Trump’s did in 2018.

“Objective and practical verification should be foreseen in the deal,” he added, to ensure that sanctions are lifted not just on paper, and that international companies can return to Iran and operate freely.

Bahadori-Jahromi also said the “removal of sanctions should be meaningful and sustainable” as Iran hopes to truly reap the economic benefits of sanctions relief.

And the spokesman stressed that “political claims about the safeguard issues should be closed,” referring to Iran’s claim a UN nuclear watchdog probe into unexplained nuclear particles found at various Iranian research sites is “political” and must end before a new deal is implemented.

The original nuclear deal promised Iran relief from crippling sanctions in return for guarantees it would not obtain a nuclear weapon, a goal Iran has always denied pursuing.

Bahadori-Jahromi said Tuesday that “negotiations about the agreement are continuing, but the other side should stop its excessive demands.”

AFP