World powers plead with Iran to stay within uranium deal’s limits

GERMANY, FRANCE and Britain have pressed Iran to reverse a decision to start enriching uranium to levels beyond the limits of a 2015 nuclear agreement.

The foreign ministers of the three European nations said in a joint statement that the Iranian activity “has no credible civil justification” and “risks compromising” chances of diplomacy with the incoming US administration.

They said the enrichment was a clear violation of the 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers and “further hollows out the agreement”.

The United States unilaterally withdrew from the agreement in 2018, and the remaining countries that signed it with Iran – Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia – have been trying to keep the accord from collapsing.

On Monday, Iran began enriching uranium to levels unseen since the 2015 deal.

The decision appeared aimed at increasing Tehran’s leverage during US President Donald Trump’s waning days in office. Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency of its plans to increase enrichment to 20 per cent last week.

Increasing enrichment at its underground Fordo facility puts Tehran closer to making weaponsgrade levels of 90 per cent.

The purpose of the deal was to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb – which Tehran insists it does not want to do.

President- elect Joe Biden has said he hopes to return the US to the deal. But Iran – which is seeking relief from crippling US sanctions – is now in violation of most major restrictions set out in the agreement.

A decision to begin enriching to 20 per cent purity a decade ago almost provoked Israel into launching a strike targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities.

The tensions only abated with the 2015 deal, which saw Iran limit its enrichment plans in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.