Parties to Iran nuclear deal to discuss breaches on Sunday

Tue, Jul 23, 2019
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Foreign

THE parties to Iran’s nuclear deal are to meet on Sunday to discuss the way forward on Tehran’s recent breaches of the accord.

The discussion will hold at a meeting of senior diplomats in Vienna.

The talks, announced on Tuesday by the European Union, are expected to bring together top foreign ministry officials from Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China, as well as Iran.

Current efforts to salvage the accord are complicated by escalating naval tensions between London and Tehran.

The naval tensions were triggered by the capture of an Iranian tanker off Gibraltar and Iran’s subsequent seizure of a British flagged oil tanker in the Hormuz Strait.

The 2015 nuclear deal aims to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb, in return for relief from wide ranging economic sanctions.

The United States withdrew from the deal last year and began re-imposing crippling restrictions on trade with Iran.

In response, Tehran recently began raising its uranium enrichment beyond the 3.67 per cent level agreed under the deal, as well as exceeding a stock limit of 300 kilogrammes of its low enriched uranium production.

Iran’s European partners are in a difficult position, trying hard to save the nuclear deal while rejecting Iran’s “less for less” approach to compliance.

Britain, France and Germany have developed a transaction system, known as Instex that should allow Iran to continue conducting trade internationally, despite US sanctions.

Several other EU states have come on board, with more countries expected to join.

Sunday’s meeting will “examine issues linked to the implementation of the (nuclear deal) in all its aspects,’’ the EU’s diplomatic service said in a statement.

The officials are also expected to decide on a date for their foreign ministers to meet. (dpa/NAN)

– July 23, 2019 @ 14:35 GMT |

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