France steps up Iran diplomacy
Top envoy sent to Tehran in bid to save nuclear accord
BERLIN — France on Tuesday sent a top diplomat to Tehran to urge Iran to scale back its recently increased uranium-enrichment activities.
The mission was underscored by a call from Europe for the Islamic Republic to return to complying with the terms of the unraveling nuclear deal “without delay.”
France, Britain and Germany, which remain a part of the 2015 nuclear accord along with Russia and China, said they planned to convene a meeting of the signatories amid “deep concern that Iran is not meeting several of its commitments.”
They said the meeting to address Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action needed to be “convened urgently,” but they did not say when that would happen.
“Iran has stated that it wants to remain within the [nuclear accord],” the countries said in a statement. “It must act accordingly by reversing these activities and returning to full [accord] compliance without delay.”
Europe is under pressure from the U.S. to abandon the accord entirely, as Washington did unilaterally last year. Europe is also being squeezed by Iran to offset the crippling effects of American economic sanctions.
That has left the Europeans’ soft-power approach strained at a time of increasing tensions in the Middle East.
“For the Europeans, it’s going to be difficult not to lose credibility in their position with Iran and also with Washington, by not being too soft, but at the same time acknowledging that there is some truth to what Iran is saying,” said Adnan Tabatabai, a political scientist with the Bonn, Germany-based Center for Applied Research in Partnership with the Orient, a think tank on Middle Eastern affairs.
They are forced to walk a fine line, trying not to escalate the situation on either side as they seek a resolution between Tehran and Washington. French President Emmanuel Macron is taking the lead for the three European countries, known as the E3, said Sanam Vakil, a researcher with London-based Chatham House think tank.
“What the E3 can do is kick-start diplomacy and diplomatic conversations,” she said. “They can potentially convince Iran to freeze its breach and prevent any further breaches, while shepherding a process back and forth between Washington and Iran — worst-case scenario is that nothing happens, but at least they’ve bought themselves time.”
So far, neither Iran’s announcement last week that it had exceeded the amount of low-enriched uranium allowed under the deal, nor Monday’s revelation it had begun enriching uranium past the 3.67% purity allowed, to 4.5%, are seen as such gross violations that they are likely to prompt Europe to invoke the deal’s dispute resolution mechanism.
That mechanism is a monthlong process, which could lead to the matter being brought before the U.N. Security Council and could result in the eventual “snapback” of U.N. sanctions that had been lifted under the deal.
“Iran’s actions are still within the framework of calibrated escalation,” Tabatabai said. “It gives some room for maneuver, and I would expect the Europeans to use this room over the next five or six weeks.”
Both of Iran’s nuclear actions have been verified by the U.N.’s nuclear monitor, the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency’s board plans to convene today in Vienna at the request of the U.S. to discuss the recent developments.
Experts warn that higher enrichment and a growing stockpile narrow the one-year window Iran would need to have enough material for an atomic bomb, something Iran denies it wants but the deal prevented.
Macron talked directly about the issue on Saturday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and separately Monday with President Donald Trump.
Macron sent his top diplomatic adviser, Emmanuel Bonne, to Tehran, where he was expected to meet today with the country’s senior security official, Ali Shamkhani, according to Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency. Bonne hopes to try to “obtain gestures” from Iran to show they’re serious about staying in the deal, a French official said.
The U.S. has sent thousands of troops, an aircraft carrier, nuclear-capable B-52 bombers and advanced fighter jets to the Middle East, and fears are growing of a wider conflict after mysterious oil tanker attacks near the Strait of Hormuz blamed on Iran, attacks by Iranian-backed rebels in Yemen on Saudi Arabia, and Iran’s downing of a U.S. military drone.
In a thinly veiled threat on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stood in front of an F-35 stealth fighter during a tour of an air base and said one should “remember that these planes can reach every place in the Middle East, including Iran and certainly Syria.”