Caught between U.S. and Iran, Europe struggles with diplomacy

BERLIN — France on Tuesday sent a top diplomat to Tehran to urge Iran to scale back its recently increased uranium enrichment activities, a mission 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, who 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, or JCPOA as the deal is formally known, needed to be “convened urgently,” but they did not say when that would happen.

“Iran has stated that it wants to remain within the JCPOA,” the countries said in a statement. “It must act accordingly by reversing these activities and returning to full JCPOA compliance without delay.”

Europe is under pressure from the U.S. to abandon the accord entirely, as Washington did unilaterally last year, and it also is being squeezed by Iran to offset the ever-crippling effects of American economic sanctions.

That has left the Europeans’ soft-power approach strained to its limits 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-based CARPO 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, with French President Emmanuel Macron 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.”