Tehran sees some progress on nuke deal, but not enough
VIENNA — A meeting of the remaining partners in the Iranian nuclear deal produced some progress but not enough to satisfy Tehran’s demands, a senior Iranian official said Friday, offering little prospect for now of the country backing away from a move to surpass a uranium stockpile threshold that could doom the agreement.
Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, said after meeting with senior officials from Britain, Germany, France, China, Russia and the European Union that a complex bartertype system set up to keep trade with Iran afloat is now active. But he insisted that for the socalled INSTEX system to be useful, “Europeans need to buy oil from Iran, or to consider credit lines for this mechanism.”
Araghchi described the meeting in Vienna, a regular quarterly gathering of signatories to the 2015 accord, as positive and constructive. He said it was “one step forward” compared with previous sessions, “but it is still not enough, and it is still not meeting Iran’s expectations.”
The 2015 agreement was aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the accord last year and he has imposed new sanctions on Iran in hopes of forcing Tehran into negotiating a widerranging deal.
Iran recently quadrupled its production of lowenriched uranium. It previously said it would surpass a 300kilogram stockpile limit set by the accord by Thursday, but then said it was below the limit Wednesday and there would be no new assessment until “after the weekend.” It is currently a holiday weekend in Iran.
European countries are pressing for Iran to comply in full with the accord, though they have not specified what the consequences would be of failing to do so. But Iranian officials maintain that even if it surpasses the enrichment limit, it would not be breaching the deal, and say such a move could be reversed quickly.
The Europeans also have faced a July 7 deadline set by Tehran to offer longpromised relief from U.S. sanctions, or Iran says it will also begin enriching its uranium closer to weaponsgrade levels.
INSTEX was conceived in January but has taken months to activate. It would help ensure trade between Iran and Europe by allowing buyers and sellers to exchange money without relying on the usual crossborder financial transactions.
Senior EU diplomat Helga Schmid confirmed on Twitter that the system is “now operational, (with) first transactions being processed” and more EU member countries to join. She said that Friday’s discussions were constructive and added that “full and effective implementation of #IranDeal by all sides remains key.”