European Union to tell Tehran it continues to back nuclear deal
Iran warns it could increase uranium enrichment if sanctions renewed
BRUSSELS/PARIS/BEIRUT (Reuters) – European powers will reaffirm on Thursday their support for the Iran nuclear deal that Donald Trump has rejected, EU diplomats said, on the eve of a deadline for the US president to decide whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the agreement.
At a meeting with Iran, Britain, France and Germany, convened by the EU’s top diplomat Federica Mogherini, the European powers that helped negotiate the 2015 accord will reassure Tehran they remain committed to it.
They will also urge Iran to continue to comply with international inspectors, the diplomats said. Tehran has always denied seeking nuclear arms.
“The aim is to send a message to Washington that Iran is complying and that it is better to have the nuclear agreement than to isolate Tehran,” one diplomat said.
The foreign ministers of Britain, Germany, France as well as Iran’s Mohammad Javad Zarif are expected to meet on Thursday morning with Mogherini. Zarif is already in Brussels, where anti-Iran demonstrators gathered on Wednesday to protest his presence in the city.
Trump’s October decision not to certify that Tehran is meeting the terms of a pact to stop it developing nuclear weapons went against world powers China, Russia, Europe and members of the US Congress.
The Thursday meeting in Brussels is part of diplomacy on both sides of the Atlantic before deadlines related to the deal falling this month, including deciding whether to reimpose oil sanctions lifted under the deal.
Trump must decide by mid-January whether to continue waiving US sanctions on Iran’s oil exports under the terms of the pact. The State Department said on Tuesday the Trump administration was expected to decide on Friday.
The decision comes as Iran’s government deals with protests over economic hardships and corruption that are linked to frustration among younger Iranians who hoped to see more benefits from the lifting of sanctions.
Retired military officers, members of Congress and former ambassadors were among 52 US national security experts who signed a letter released on Monday urging Trump not to jeopardize the deal with Iran.
European countries including France and Italy have benefited from renewed trade with Iran, whose proven natural gas reserves are as vast as Russia’s, while Britain reopened its embassy in Tehran following the deal.
If Trump reimposes sanctions on Tehran, European powers fear the deal would fall apart. The EU is adamant the deal cannot be renegotiated.
Meanwhile, Iran’s atomic energy agency said on Wednesday that a reimposition of sanctions by the US would be a violation of Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers, adding that the Islamic Republic had the capacity to greatly increase its enrichment of uranium.
“If the suspension is not continued it’s a violation of the [nuclear deal] and the Islamic Republic of Iran will, of course, take the necessary actions,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said in an interview with state TV.
He did not specify what such actions might be. Later in the interview, he said: “The capacity exists within the atomic energy agency to speed up nuclear work in various fields, particularly in the field of enrichment, which can be increased several times more than in the period before the nuclear agreement.”
Enrichment, a process which can produce weapons-grade uranium, is restricted under the terms of the deal. Supporters of the pact insist that strong international monitoring will prevent Iran from developing nuclear bombs.
“The American government should think wisely,” Kamalvandi said in the interview. “Even though they have shown until now unfortunately that they are not thinking or acting wisely.”
The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali Akbar Salehi, said on Monday Tehran might reconsider its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if the United States failed to respect its commitments in the deal.
The IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy. It is scrutinizing Iran’s compliance with the agreement.
Majid Takht Ravanchi, a senior aide to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, said on Wednesday Trump’s unpredictable personality made it difficult to foresee whether sanctions would be renewed.
“We are prepared for the worst-case scenario,” Takht Ravanchi said, according to state media. “Not only in the political field but even on the economic front.”