ISTANBUL/TEHRAN - Iran and three European powers of France, Germany, and Britain, collectively known as the E3, held a high-level meeting in Istanbul on Friday to discuss the latest developments in the ongoing indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington.

The meeting took place at the Iranian Consulate General in Istanbul and was held at the deputy foreign minister level behind closed doors.

Following the meeting, Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, wrote on X that they had "exchanged views and discussed the latest state of play on nuclear and sanctions lifting indirect negotiations."

He added that Iran and the E3 were determined to "sustain and make best use of diplomacy," noting, "We will meet again, as appropriate, to continue our dialogue."

Gharibabadi also firmly stated that uranium enrichment is a non-negotiable issue for Iran, rejecting any possibility of halting the process.

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Friday's meeting is the sixth round of the talks between the representatives of Iran and the three European powers since September last year, when the two sides' delegations began dialogue on a number of issues, including Tehran's nuclear program and the removal of sanctions, on the sidelines of the annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The previous round took place in Geneva in late March.

The resumption of the dialogue between Iran and the E3 comes amid the ongoing Oman-facilitated indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington, of which four rounds have been held so far, three in Oman and one in Rome.

The Iran-US negotiations focus on Tehran's nuclear program and the removal of Washington's sanctions. 

Also on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said on the social media platform X that Iran will under no circumstances abandon its "hard-earned" right to uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.

Rejecting a Thursday report by the US-based news website Axios, which claimed that Washington had presented Tehran with a proposal for a nuclear deal during the fourth round of indirect negotiations in the Omani capital, Muscat, on Sunday, Araghchi said Iran had not received any direct or indirect written proposal from the United States.