Tehran delays breach of Iran nuclear deal

As it waits for the deal’s remaining
signatories to relieve sanctions, Iran narrowly avoids deliberately
violating the JCPOA

One-Minute Read William Gritten

Apart from the US, which abandoned the deal last year, the
original signatories from 2015 – particularly the Europeans – are
desperate to stop the JCPOA crumbling. Diplomatic pressure has
been exerted before a pivotal meeting between representatives of
Iran, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, and the European
Union scheduled in Vienna for today.

Significantly, the Islamic Republic is eager to find out
the details of the EU’s proposed plan to circumvent US sanctions,
which are crippling the country’s economy and causing unemployment
rates to soar. 

As the Daily Telegraph reports: “European nations are
expected to use the meeting to announce a new credit instrument
designed to facilitate trade with Iran. The mechanism, called
Instex, is meant to allow European companies to sell essential
goods to Iran without falling foul of US financial sanctions.
Britain, France, and Germany are expected to put up a small amount
of money to kickstart it.”

“We welcome their [the European’s] positions against the
withdrawal of the US,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas
Araghchi, told Iranian state television in Vienna. “But these
political positions should certainly be translated into operational
steps.”

The Europeans hope the operational steps they are taking will be
enough to convince Iran to keep the deal alive. “Iran has said it
will breach the deal unless it gets at least some of the economic
benefits it was promised in return for accepting tough limits on
its nuclear program,” the New York Times says. “The Europeans are hoping
to announce by Friday a multimillion-euro line of credit to get the
barter-trade system functioning.”

However, according to The Guardian, attempts to hold the deal
together are “probably doomed”. The New York Times follows suit: “Most analysts
agree that it will not bring Iran the benefits it seeks, but the
Europeans regard it as an important gesture of good faith in the
agreement and as a riposte to a Trump administration that they say
is using American financial power to harm European interests and
trade.”

The US administration remains hawkish on Iran and the
2015’s nuclear deal. “If they get the message that they’ve
succeeded in scaring JCPOA partners into trying to pay for a return
to compliance, then that will create a market for more
misbehavior,” said the US’s assistant secretary of state for
nonproliferation, Christopher Ford.

“It’s extortion,” said Brian Hook, US special
representative for Iran, lamenting that the “the vehicle doesn’t
exist” for the US to impose sanctions on the European attempts to
establish a trade mechanism with Iran. 

This coming weekend holds further hopes for keeping the
deal alive, as the issue will be of prime concern at the G20 summit
in Japan. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, European nations have
“warned if Iran breaches its commitments under the nuclear deal,
there will be consequences that could eventually kill the deal and
lead to renewed European sanctions on Tehran. Still, no sharp
response is immediately expected from Europe if Iran breaches the
enriched uranium cap. If Iran does breach the 300-kilogram enriched
uranium limit, it would still be far off from having the ability to
produce enough nuclear fuel for an atomic bomb.”