Iran to reduce its nuclear deal commitments as talks with Europe drag on

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region ⁠— Iran will take further steps on Thursday to reduce its 2015 nuclear deal commitments as European states have failed to live up to their commitments to alleviate US economic pressure on the Islamic Republic, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday.

Rouhani told his cabinet that while there has been progress with Europe over the deal the US withdrew from last year, Tehran would nonetheless take further measures on Thursday.

“For instance, if we had disagreements on 20 issues, now we have disagreements on three issues and most of the issues have been resolved,” Rouhani told his cabinet on Wednesday morning, according to the state-run TV channel IRIB. “However we have not reached the final point and it is unlikely that we reach a final settlement today or tomorrow.

“Therefore we will take the third step and the details of this step will be announced either today or tomorrow and we will act accordingly.”

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday confirmed the third step in scaling down its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal on Wednesday night,ordering all limits on nuclear research and development to be lifted.

"The atomic energy organisation (of Iran) is ordered to immediately start whatever is needed in the field of research and development, and abandon all the commitments that were in place regarding research and development," AFP reported Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as saying on state television.

The US withdrew from the landmark 2015 deal last year, and subsequently slapped Iran with harsh sanctions in an effort to thwart Iran’s apparent pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Since then, European states have been working to keep the agreement alive.

The comments from Rouhani come after an Iranian delegation headed by the deputy foreign minister Abbas Araqchi accompanied by finance and oil officials visited Paris on Monday to hammer out a credit line with French government.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his government have been on a mission this summer to try and find a solution to defuse the tension between the US and Iran over the nuclear issue and the freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf following a series of incidents in the region that spurred Washington to nearly launch a targeted bombing campaign on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bases across the country for shooting down a US spy drone.

France has agreed to offer Iran a $15 billion credit line for the remaining months of 2019 guaranteed by Iranian oil revenues, but to seal the deal, Washington must approve it.

The idea is “to exchange a credit line guaranteed by oil in return for, one, a return to the JCPOA (Iran nuclear deal)...and two, security in the Gulf and the opening of negotiations on regional security and a post-2025 (nuclear program),” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves le Drian told reporters on Tuesday, according to Reuters. “All this (pre)-supposes that (US) President (Donald) Trump issues waivers.”

The spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the Iranian side was considering the proposal. 

”Abbas Araqchi brought back the result of the negotiations to Tehran and after reviewing them, it is possible to comment about them. The negotiation is continuing in an intense way…” Sayyid Abas Mousavi was quoted as saying by state-run agency IRNA.

“It appears that these negotiations would not be in time for Iran’s ultimatum [tomorrow] and it is very likely that Iran will announce the third step of reducing its commitments in the next one or two days.”

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told IRIB from Bangladesh that the Europeans, unlike China and Russia, have not delivered on any of their commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“Let me be straight, we have told the Europeans what we expect from them,” Zarif said on Wednesday. “The prerequisite for Iran to deliver on its commitments is for Europeans to guarantee the sale of Iranian oil.”

Meanwhile, US sanctions on Iran are continuing to be added. Zarif said that the Americans have become “addicted to sanctions” after the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the Iranian civilian space agency for contributing to Iran’s ballistic missile program.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced these latest sanctions on Twitter on Wednesday.

For the 1st time, the US has sanctioned Iran’s civilian space agency, which develops the same space launch vehicle technology used in ballistic missiles. We call on our allies to join us in deterring the world’s top sponsor of terrorism from growing its ballistic missile program.

— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) September 3, 2019

In a positive development, the Iranian foreign ministry announced that seven crew members of Stena Impero, the British flagged tanker detained by the IRGC in July, have been released. Iran seized the British tanker in response to the British Royal Marines impounding an Iranian oil tanker called Adrian Darya 1, previously known as Grace 1, in early July off the coast of Gibraltar. Adrian Darya, which Gibraltar officials said was delivering oil to Syria in violation of EU sanctions, was last seen in the Mediterranean Sea between Cyprus and Syria, but its transponders have been switched off since Monday. 

“The captain of the ship decided to select seven crew members of the ship including Indian nationals,” said Mousavi. “Steps have been taken… for these individuals to leave the country [Iran] soon.” 

Updated at 11:00pm

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