STICK TO YOUR NUCLEAR DEAL COMMITMENTS, BRUSSELS TELLS TEHRAN
▶ Iran insists its departures from the 2015 deal so far can be reversed, but Washington says it will not grant any exemptions or waivers on sanctions
The EU on Thursday demanded that Iran stops diluting its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, after Tehran said it would end the limits placed on its atomic research.
On Saturday, Iran will reveal details of its latest move to breach parts of the agreement, a move it made in retaliation for sanctions imposed by US President Donald Trump.
Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi will set out the details of the third step away from its deal commitments since May.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the new steps included abandoning all limits set by the 2015 deal on Iran’s nuclear research and development. Mr Rouhani said that from Friday, Iran will begin developing centrifuges to speed up the enrichment of uranium – which can produce fuel for power plants or for atomic weapons – as the next step in reducing its nuclear commitments.
Under the accord, Iran was allowed to keep restricted quantities of first-generation centrifuges at two nuclear plants. The successful development of more advanced centrifuges would enable it to produce material for a potential nuclear bomb several times faster.
“The Atomic Energy Organisation [of Iran] is ordered to immediately start whatever is needed in the field of research and development, and abandon all the commitments that were in place regarding research and development,” Mr Rouhani said. European Commission spokesman Carlos de Gordejuela said in Brussels that the decision was inconsistent with the nuclear deal.
“And in this context we urge Iran to reverse these steps and refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal,” he said.
The remaining signatories – the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – are trying to keep the deal alive. The European powers are trying to reduce US-Iran tension, but Washington and Tehran are hardening their outlooks.
In July, Iran abandoned commitments restricting its uranium stockpile and its level of uranium enrichment.
The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said on August 30 that Iran’s uranium stockpile was about 360 kilograms, of which just more than 10 per cent was enriched to 4.5 per cent.
Mr Rouhani has stressed that the countermeasures Iran has adopted are all readily reversible if the remaining parties to the deal honour undertakings to provide sanctions relief.
Iran said that a French offer of a $15 billion (Dh55.09bn) credit line could entice it to return to full compliance with the deal. But a senior US official on Wednesday ruled out any exemptions.
“We can’t make it any more clear that we are committed to this campaign of maximum pressure and we are not looking to grant any exceptions or waivers,” said Brian Hook, the US State Department co-ordinator on Iran.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif responded by tweeting that the US Treasury was “nothing more than a jail warden”.
“Ask for reprieve [waiver], get thrown in solitary for the audacity. Ask again and you might end up in the gallows,” he tweeted.
Iran has grown frustrated at Europe’s failure to offset the effects of renewed US sanctions in return for its continued compliance with the agreement.
The Iranian president on Wednesday gave Europe a 60day ultimatum before Iran drops another commitment.
Washington admitted on Wednesday that Mr Hook personally offered several million dollars to the Indian captain of an Iranian oil tanker suspected of heading to Syria.
The Financial Times reported that the State Department’s leading official on Iran emailed Captain Akhilesh Kumar offering “good news” of millions in US dollars to live comfortably if he steered the Grace 1, now the Adrian Darya-1, to a country where it could be seized.
“We have seen the Financial Times article and can confirm that the details are accurate,” a State Department spokeswoman said. “We have conducted extensive outreach to several ship captains as well as shipping companies, warning them of the consequences of providing support to a foreign terrorist organisation,” she said, referring to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Iran said that a French offer of a $15 billion credit line could entice it to return to full compliance with the deal