Iran’s recent breaches of the 2015 nuclear deal are not significant and can be reversed, the European Union’s foreign policy chief says.
“We invite Iran to reverse the steps and go back to full compliance,” Federica Mogherini said on Monday.
Iran stepped up production of enriched uranium, used to make reactor fuel but also potentially nuclear bombs, in May.
It is responding to sanctions imposed by the US since it withdrew unilaterally from the agreement.
The breaches come amid heightened tensions between Iran and the US.
There has been tension with the UK, too, following the UK seizure of an Iranian oil tanker earlier this month suspected of taking oil to Syria in breach of sanctions. Iran denies this.
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The long-term nuclear deal involves Iran limiting its nuclear activities in return for the easing of economic sanctions, which have badly hurt its economy.
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“Technically all the steps that have been taken, and that we regret have been taken, are reversible,” Ms Mogherini said, following a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
She said none of the signatories to the deal considered the breaches to be significant, and so they would not be triggering its dispute mechanism which could lead to further sanctions.
Door is ‘wide open’ to negotiation if Trump lifts his sanctions on Iran, Zarif says
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Monday his country does not want a war with the U.S. but said President Donald Trump must lift harsh economic sanctions on Tehran to clear the way for negotiations.
In an interview with NBC Nightly News’ Lester Holt, Zarif said the door is “wide open” to diplomacy if Trump removes the array of sanctions he has imposed since 2017 that have slashed the country’s oil exports and damaged its economy.
“Once those sanctions are lifted, then … the room for negotiation is wide open,” Zarif said during a visit to New York for a U.N. conference.
Zarif said it was the United States, not Iran, that had undermined diplomacy by walking away from the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers.
“It is the United States that left the bargaining table. And they’re always welcome to return,” Zarif said.
President Donald Trump last year pulled the U.S. out of the agreement, which curtailed Iran’s nuclear program in return for an easing of U.S. and international sanctions. Trump blasted the accord as the “worst deal ever,” saying it granted Iran too many concessions and failed to curb the country’s ballistic missile program.
As tensions have flared between Washington and Tehran in recent weeks, Trump has said that he is open to talks with Iran without preconditions but that he was determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Zarif said Iran had no interest in securing a nuclear arsenal, though it could have built the bomb if it wanted to.
“Had we been interested in developing nuclear weapons, we would have been able to do it long time ago,” Zarif said.
U.S. intelligence agencies concluded previously that Iran abandoned a nuclear weapons program in 2003, but could revive it if and when it decided to.
The Trump administration tightened oil sanctions on Iran in April, drastically cutting the country’s oil exports, which are a crucial source of revenue.
Iran has responded by taking incremental steps breaching some provisions of the nuclear deal. Tehran has exceeded limits on uranium stockpiles and on uranium enrichment, which it agreed to in the accord, and has warned it will take additional steps if it does not get relief from the U.S. economic sanctions.
Since April, when Trump ratcheted up the pressure on Iran’s oil trade, tankers in the Persian Gulf have twice come under attack. The Trump administration blamed Iran for the incidents, which Tehran denies.
After Iran downed a U.S. drone last month, the administration planned a retaliatory strike hours later but Trump called it off, saying he was concerned about potential casualties. Iran said the drone was in Iranian airspace, but Washington insists otherwise.
Zarif said he did not think the two countries were on the verge of war, saying neither his government nor Trump was seeking armed conflict.
“I do not believe that President Trump wants war. But I believe that people are around him who wouldn’t mind,” Zarif said.