Iran Warns JCPOA Sides of Its Options
TEHRAN - Iran will return to the situation before its nuclear deal with world powers unless European countries fulfill their obligations, the spokesman for Iran’s nuclear agency, Behrouz Kamalvandi, said on Monday.
Iran says the European countries must do more to guarantee it the economic benefits it was meant to receive in return for curbs to its nuclear program under the deal, which Washington abandoned last year.
"If the Europeans and the Americans don't want to carry out their duties... we will decrease our commitments and... reverse the conditions to four years ago," Kamalvandi said.
"These actions are not out of obstinacy. It is to give diplomacy a chance so that the other side come to their senses and carry out their duties," he added.
The deal promised economic benefits and sanctions relief to Iran, but US President Donald Trump withdrew from the accord in May 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Angered that its economy is not receiving sanctions relief it was promised under the deal, Iran has intensified uranium enrichment work.
European foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday for crisis talks on the deal.
On Sunday, the European parties to the deal - Britain, France and Germany - called for dialogue as tensions further intensified between Iran and the United States.
In a statement, the so-called E3 expressed concern the deal was at risk of further unraveling.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to leave the deal unless the remaining parties to the agreement bypass U.S. sanctions and deliver the promised benefits.
Earlier, Iran's foreign ministry urged the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal "to take practical, effective and responsible decisions" to save the landmark agreement.
"We stress that the continued voluntary and goodwill based actions by the Islamic Republic of Iran are rooted in the principle of reciprocity of rights and duties" in the nuclear deal, the ministry said.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said on Monday that there was still time to save the Iran nuclear deal and that despite the United States being Britain's closest ally it disagreed on how to handle the Iran crisis.
"Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear bomb. There is still some closing, but small window to keep the deal alive," Hunt told reporters on arrival for a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels.
The Brussels meeting was to seek to flesh out how to convince Iran and the United States to reduce tensions and initiate a dialogue amid fears that the 2015 deal is close to collapse.
In reaction to the reimposition of tough U.S. sanctions, Tehran has scaled back on some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.
When asked whether the European powers would seek to penalize Iran for breaking parts of its nuclear commitments, Hunt said they would seek a meeting of the parties to deal with it.
"We will and there’s something called a joint commission, which is the mechanism set up in the deal which is what happens when one side thinks the other side has breached it, that will happen very soon,” he said.
France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that Europe had to remain united in trying to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.
"The Europeans have to stay united on this issue,” Le Drian told reporters at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels. Iran’s decision to reduce compliance with the deal that the United States abandoned last year was "a bad response to a bad decision,” he claimed.
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