Germany, UK, France urge Iran to reverse decision on JCPOA commitments

France, Britain and Germany, the three European signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, have asked the Islamic Republic to reverse its decision to enrich uranium beyond the limits set in the agreement.

According to Press TV, Iran announced Sunday that it was set to increase enrichment purity to levels higher than 3.67 percent after the three major European countries (EU3) missed a 60-day deadline to fulfill its demands to protect bilateral trade from economic sanctions by the US, which left the deal in May 2018.

The French government said that it was not going to trigger the nuclear deal’s dispute resolution mechanism for now and would wait for a week instead for each side to come forward with their views on the issue.

"It's not an option at this moment," a source at President Emmanuel Macron's Elysee office said of the mechanism, which sets off a process that could lead to the re-imposition of United Nations sanctions should the other parties – the EU3, China and Russia – agree that Iran has violated the agreement.

On Saturday, Macron told his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, in a phone call that he would try to have all parties resume dialogue by July 15. However, he did not mention what could happen if his attempts failed. Macron didn’t say whether his efforts were coordinated with other European governments.

EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said Sunday that the bloc is “extremely concerned” about Iran’s decision to ramp up enrichment beyond the 3.67 percent limit.

"We strongly urge Iran to stop and reverse all activities inconsistent with its commitments ... We are in contact with the other JCPOA participantsregarding the next steps under the terms of the JCPOA, including a Joint Commission," she added.

Iran to continue reducing JCPOA commitments

Upon announcing Iran’s decision on Sunday, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said Trump’s plan, which included economic and political pressure as well as military threats, had failed.

He said Tehran had a range of other options on agenda as next steps including redesign of Arak reactor, which the US had originally undertaken to carry out under the JCPOA.

Iran's deputy foreign minister said talks with Chinese and English officials to that effect were ongoing, adding that Iran had the will and technology to redesign the reactor on its own if the talks failed to produce favorable results.

Araqchi warned that Iran had planned out 60-day contingencies for every European failure to meet Iranian demands and could potentially ultimately scrap the deal altogether.

SS