Iran
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini (left), French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. File photo: Francois Lenoir | AP
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The three European cosigners of the Joint Comprehensive plan of Action (JCPOA) are insisting for Iran to comply with nuclear limits in the accord as Tehran has announced this week that it has exceeded enriched uranium amounts previously agreed upon.
Europe's joint stance comes after US President Donald Trump said Iran "was playing with fire." On Monday, Iranian FM Javad Zarif confirmed Tehran had crossed the 300-kilogram threshold of enriched 3.67-percent uranium.
"We urge Iran to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal. We are urgently considering next steps under the terms of the JCPoA in close coordination with other JCPoA participants," the European statement added.
"Iran was violating the 150 Billion Dollar (plus 1.8 Billion Dollar in CASH) Nuclear Deal with the United States, and others who paid NOTHING, long before I became President - and they have now breached their stockpile limit. Not good!" he tweeted.
"We have been consistent and clear that our commitment to the nuclear deal depends on full compliance by Iran. We regret this decision by Iran, which calls into question an essential instrument of nuclear nonproliferation," read a joint statement released by the European Union's High Representative Federica Mogherini.
The statement Tuesday was cosigned by the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, Jean-Yves Le Drian, Heiko Maas, and Jeremy Hunt, respectively.
Europe's joint stance comes after US President Donald Trump said Iran "was playing with fire." On Monday, Iranian FM Javad Zarif confirmed Tehran had crossed the 300-kilogram threshold of enriched 3.67-percent uranium.
"We urge Iran to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal. We are urgently considering next steps under the terms of the JCPoA in close coordination with other JCPoA participants," the European statement added.
Trump again hit back late on Tuesday, saying it is "Not good!" that Iran has breached the 300-kilogram limit of 3.67 percent enriched uranium.
"Iran was violating the 150 Billion Dollar (plus 1.8 Billion Dollar in CASH) Nuclear Deal with the United States, and others who paid NOTHING, long before I became President - and they have now breached their stockpile limit. Not good!" he tweeted.
The nuclear deal increasingly has become a foreign policy issue ahead of the US presidential election in 2020. Most Democratic Party candidates have been critical of the Republican Trump's withdraw from the deal — defending President Barack Obama's policy.
During a Democratic Party preliminary debate last week, the moderator asked candidates to raise their rand if they would rejoin the 2015 nuclear deal — every candidate except Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey raised their hand.
“We need to get into a deal, but I’m not going to have a platform to say I’m going to rejoin the deal,” he said on the televised debate. “When I’m president of the United States, I will do the best I can to secure the country and the region, and if I have an opportunity to leverage a better deal, I’m going to do it.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota acknowledged shortcomings of the deal.
“It was imperfect, but it was a good deal for that moment. I would have worked to get longer sunset periods, and that’s something we can negotiate to get back in the deal,” she said.
Obama's former Special Presidential Envoy to the anti-ISIS coalition has been critical of Trump's Middle East policies and resigned from his post in December.
He shared an excerpt of an Washington Post opinion piece on Twitter on Tuesday penned by historian, journalist, and author Rick Atkinson.
“Diplomacy as practiced by America in 2019, which often consists of giving a thumb in the eye to our closest partners, threatens to leave us as friendless as Britain was 243 years ago," it read.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has acknowledged that Iran has exceeded the 300 kilogram limit; although neither it nor Tehran have offered tangible proof.
European countries have offered an alternative barter-type, so-called 'INSTEX' system to try to alleviate the effects of US sanctions on the Iranian economy, but Tehran says the initiative doesn't go far enough.
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