PARIS/DUBA (Reuters) – France, the United Kingdom and Germany will consult with their international partners on how to respond to Iran’s continued nuclear escalation, which “jeopardizes the prospects of restoring” Vienna agreement, the three countries said in a joint statement released on Saturday.
Iran has rejected an “unconstructive” initiative, urging E3 countries to work out solutions to resolve “the few disagreements that remain”.
Iran’s latest demands to return to its commitments under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) “raise serious doubts about Thran’s intentions and determination to achieve a favorable outcome” on the deal, declare the spokespersons for the foreign ministers of the three European powers that have signed the pact.
“As we move closer to an agreement, Iran has reopened separate issues related to its legally binding international obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and its safeguards agreement under the NPT concluded with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)”, they lament.
A few days before a meeting of the Board of Governors of the IAEA, the three countries (united under the name of E3) believe that “Iran’s position is incompatible with its legally binding obligations”.
The Europeans regret that Iran did not choose to “take advantage of (the) decisive diplomatic opportunity” represented by the additional proposals presented at the beginning of August by the European Union.
The JCPoA, signed in Vienna in 2015, has fallen apart since former US President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the agreement in 2018 and reinstated heavy sanctions against Iran.
Thran has since walked away from the terms of the deal, including on uranium enrichment. According to the IAEA’s latest quarterly report, the Islamic Republic has further increased its stockpile of enriched uranium up to 60%, close to weapons grade, and it now has more than enough to embark on the making of an atomic bomb if he enriched her a little more.
Iran, France, the United Kingdom and Germany estimated on Saturday, “has continued to develop its nuclear program well beyond any plausible civilian justification”.
(edited by Jean-Stphane Brosse)