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Iran
In this file photo taken on March 30, 2005 the Iranian nuclear research centre of Natanz, is pictured 270 kms south of Tehran. Photo: Henghameh Fahimi / AFP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — France, Germany and the United Kingdom on Monday called on Tehran to avoid taking further destabilizing measures that would undermine the possibility of salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal under the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Following the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, Iranian parliament passed a bill last week obliging President Hassan Rouhani’s government to raise the enrichment of uranium to a level of 20%. It gave the United States and European countries one month to lift sanctions on its oil and banking sector or else Tehran will stop cooperating with UN inspectors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also told its members on Friday that Iran had informed the agency that it would install an additional three cascades of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant in Natanz in addition to one IR-2m machines already used for enrichment in the plant.
“Iran’s recent announcement to the IAEA …is contrary to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions] JCPOA and deeply worrying,” reads a statement from the three European countries, adding that if the parliamentary bill if implemented, it “would be incompatible with the JCPOA and Iran’s wider nuclear commitments.”
“Such a move [by Iran] would jeopardise our shared efforts to preserve the JCPOA and risks compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US Administration,” reads the statement, describing the JCPOA as a “key achievement of multilateral diplomacy.”
“A return to the JCPOA would also be beneficial for Iran,” it added.
Since President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018 and the US’s re-imposing of crippling sanctions on Iran, Tehran has taken several measures to scale back on its commitment to the nuclear deal as a way of forcing European countries to assist Iran in bypassing the US sanctions.
“We will address Iran’s non-compliance within the framework of the JCPOA. We welcome the statements by President-elect Biden on the JCPOA and a diplomatic path to address wider concerns with Iran. This is in all our interests,” the statement from France, Germany and the UK reads.
Following the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, Iranian parliament passed a bill last week obliging President Hassan Rouhani’s government to raise the enrichment of uranium to a level of 20%. It gave the United States and European countries one month to lift sanctions on its oil and banking sector or else Tehran will stop cooperating with UN inspectors.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also told its members on Friday that Iran had informed the agency that it would install an additional three cascades of advanced IR-2m centrifuges at its underground uranium enrichment plant in Natanz in addition to one IR-2m machines already used for enrichment in the plant.
“Iran’s recent announcement to the IAEA …is contrary to the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions] JCPOA and deeply worrying,” reads a statement from the three European countries, adding that if the parliamentary bill if implemented, it “would be incompatible with the JCPOA and Iran’s wider nuclear commitments.”
“Such a move [by Iran] would jeopardise our shared efforts to preserve the JCPOA and risks compromising the important opportunity for a return to diplomacy with the incoming US Administration,” reads the statement, describing the JCPOA as a “key achievement of multilateral diplomacy.”
“A return to the JCPOA would also be beneficial for Iran,” it added.
Since President Trump’s withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018 and the US’s re-imposing of crippling sanctions on Iran, Tehran has taken several measures to scale back on its commitment to the nuclear deal as a way of forcing European countries to assist Iran in bypassing the US sanctions.
“We will address Iran’s non-compliance within the framework of the JCPOA. We welcome the statements by President-elect Biden on the JCPOA and a diplomatic path to address wider concerns with Iran. This is in all our interests,” the statement from France, Germany and the UK reads.
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