VIENNA (Reuters) – European powers demanded at talks on Friday that Iran stop violating their nuclear deal, but stopped short of triggering a mechanism that could renew U.N. sanctions and kill the 2015 accord, officials said.
The meeting came amid heightened friction between Iran and the West. Tehran has rolled back its commitments under the 2015 deal in response to Washington’s withdrawal last year and reimposition of sanctions that have crippled its economy.
With Tehran angry over a lack of European protection from U.S. sanctions, there appears scant scope for compromise.
The Europeans and Iran clashed on Thursday over the Iranian ballistic missile program before senior diplomats from the remaining parties to the deal – Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia – met Iranian officials in Vienna on Friday to assess the state of the nuclear agreement.
As the U.S.-Iran confrontation has eroded the accord, the Europeans are torn between trying to save it and responding to Iran’s breaches, which have increasingly tested their patience.
The breaches have included exceeding the maximum amount of enriched uranium it is allowed under the deal and resuming enrichment at Fordow, a plant buried inside a mountain that Iran hid from U.N. nuclear non-proliferation inspectors until Western spies exposed it in 2009.
The European “E3” powers – France, Britain and Germany – have been considering triggering a mechanism in the deal that could lead to reimposition of global, United Nations sanctions.
“All countries need to refrain from taking actions that further complicates the situation,” Fu Cong, director general of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, told reporters after the talks.
“In our view there is an element of automaticity into this and we can’t be sure that countries can keep this process under control. It could aggravate tensions,” he said, adding that the European powers had not indicated whether or when they would trigger the mechanism.
