The European Union (EU) has on Monday said it will consider Iran to continue complying with its commitment to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, the International Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, until full-proved evidence is being emerged over Tehran’s breaching of its commitments.
According to Al-Jazeera news reports, EU foreign policy head Federica Mogherini has on Monday told reporters the assessments of the EU leaders were totally based over the technical reports of IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) into the 2015 INF Treaty, formally also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran on Monday said it will breach the internationally agreed curbs over its low-enriched uranium stock in next 10 days – a move likely to escalate already-high friction with the United States – but added the European allies still have time to secure the landmark 2015 international nuclear deal.
“As of today, Iran is still compliant,” said Mogherini. “And we still strongly hope, encourage and expect Iran to fulfill its commitments under the JCPOA.”
Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said, “Mogherini is not giving too much away at the moment, not revealing too much in the way of specifics, or what the EU is doing behind closed doors.”
He said Iran seeks to ratchet up pressure on the bloc to do what it has stated it will do to protect the Iranian economy from the United States sanctions – this sort of ratcheting up pressure demands few kinds of reactions from the EU, but Mogherini is not being candid about what sort of reaction that will be.
European powers have been closely working to generate a workaround, establishing a financial and payment system, knows as INSTEX, in order to circumvent the US sanctions.
“Our objective is to keep the nuclear deal in place,” Mogherini told reporters on Monday. “It is not easy, and we have made no secret of that.”
German foreign minister Heiko Maas has stated Berlin would not at all accept “a unilateral reduction of obligations”. “We have already said in the past that we will not accept less for less. It is up to Iran to stick to its obligations,” Maas said.
A spokesperson for the British government agreed and said the bloc signatories to the pact had “consistently made clear that there can be no reduction in compliance”.
Also read: Quadrupling uranium enrichment rate in 10 days; less time to secure nuclear deal: Iran