The situation in the Middle East is “perilous”, the Foreign Secretary said as he urged Iran to negotiate with the US.
David Lammy flew from Washington to Geneva on Friday to meet Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi alongside his French and German counterparts as the UK continued to press for a diplomatic solution to the Middle East crisis.
The talks followed US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would delay a decision on joining Israeli strikes against Iran for up to two weeks.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lammy told reporters: “It is still clear to me, as President Trump indicated yesterday, that there is a window of within two weeks where we can see a diplomatic solution.”
Urging Iran to “take that off ramp” and talk to the Americans, he said: “We have a window of time. This is perilous and deadly serious.”
He added that the US and Europe were pushing for Iran to agree to zero enrichment of uranium as a “starting point” for negotiations.
But Mr Araghchi said Iran would not negotiate with the US as long as Israel continued to carry out airstrikes against the country, and insisted his country’s nuclear programme was entirely peaceful.
Both sides continued to exchange fire on Friday, with Iranian missiles targeting the city of Haifa while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tel Aviv’s military operation would continue “for as long as it takes”.
Meanwhile, the UK Government has announced it will use charter flights to evacuate Britons stranded in Israel once the country’s airspace reopens.
Mr Lammy said work is under way to provide the flights “based on levels of demand” from UK citizens who want to leave the region.
The move follows criticism of the Foreign Office’s initial response, which saw family members of embassy staff evacuated while UK citizens were not advised to leave and told to follow local guidance.
The Government said the move to temporarily withdraw family members had been a “precautionary measure”.
On Friday, the Foreign Office announced that UK staff had also been evacuated from Iran, with the embassy continuing to operate remotely.
But the Government continues to advise British nationals in the region to follow local advice, rather than urging them to leave.
The US evacuated 79 staff and families from the embassy in Israel on Friday local time, according to the Associated Press.
Mr Trump told reporters his national intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard was “wrong” when she told lawmakers in March that US intelligence officials did not believe Iran had been building a nuclear weapon.
The president also suggested it would be “very hard to stop” Israeli strikes on Iran to negotiate a ceasefire.
