The European Union’s energy chief tried to reassure Iran on Saturday that the bloc remained committed to salvaging a nuclear deal with Tehran despite US President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the accord and reimpose sanctions.
The European Commissioner for Energy and Climate, Miguel Arias Canete, delivered the message during a visit to Tehran and said the 28-nation EU hoped to boost trade with Iran, Reuters reported.
“We have sent a message to our Iranian friends that as long as they are sticking to the (nuclear) agreement the Europeans will... fulfill their commitment. And they said the same thing on the other side,” Canete told a news conference.
“We will try to intensify our flows of trade that have been very positive for the Iranian economy.”
Iran’s nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said his country hoped the EU would manage to salvage the 2015 deal, in which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of western sanctions.
“We hope their efforts materialize... America’s actions... show that it is not a trustworthy country in international dealings,” Salehi told the joint news conference in Tehran.
Since Trump’s announcement on May 8 about the US exit, European countries have said they will try to keep Iran’s oil and investment flowing, but have also admitted they will struggle to provide the guarantees Tehran seeks. Salehi, echoing Iran’s official stance, ruled out any possibility of renegotiation the accord.
All Kinds of Possibilities
Salehi said Iran had several options, including resuming its 20% uranium enrichment, if the European countries failed to keep the pact alive. He said the EU had only a few weeks to deliver on their promises.
“If the other side keeps itself committed to its promises we also will be keeping ourselves to our promises ... We hope the situation will not arise to the point that we will have to go back to the worst option,” Salehi told reporters in English.
“There are all kinds of possibilities, we can ... start the 20% enrichment.”
Under the 2015 deal, Iran’s level of enrichment must remain at around 3.6%. Iran stopped producing 20% enriched uranium and gave up the majority of its stockpile as part of the agreement.
Uranium refined to 20% fissile purity is well beyond the 5% normally required to fuel civilian nuclear power plants, although still well short of the highly enriched, or 80 to 90%, purity needed for a nuclear bomb.
Iran enriched uranium to the 20% purity level for a medical research reactor in Tehran.
Iran has struggled to reap benefits from the accord, partly because of remaining unilateral US sanctions that have deterred major western investors from doing business with Tehran.
Officials have tried to assure ordinary Iranians, frustrated by high unemployment and stagnant living standards, that Trump’s decision would have no impact on the country’s oil-reliant economy.
“Unfortunately because of the negative interference of the US, we were not able to reap the fruits of the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Actions) we expected,” Salehi said.
“So the public opinion is not as supportive as it was before and if the other side does not deliver... we will keep losing the support of our people for the JCPOA.”
Deadline for JCPOA Guarantees
A group of Iranian lawmakers have drawn up a motion to set a deadline for Europe to provide guarantees that Tehran will enjoy benefits of the JCPOA if the nuclear deal is to be saved after the US withdrawal earlier this month, an MP said. Tasnim News Agency reported.
Mojtaba Zulnoor, chairman of the parliament’s nuclear committee, told Tasnim news agency that more than 70 lawmakers signed the motion that, if passed, would require the administration to take the necessary steps to increase uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 Separative Work Units (SWUs) and resume the pre-JCPOA nuclear activities if it does not receive guarantees from Europe within a month.
An SWU is a measure for the amount of work expended during uranium enrichment.
Back in 2014, Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said “Western countries’ aim is that we accept a capacity of 10,000 separative work units (SWUs), which is equivalent to 10,000 centrifuges of the older type that we already have. Our officials say we need 190,000 SWU. Perhaps this is not a need this year or in two years or five years, but this is the country’s absolute need,” Reuters reported.
The motion, to be tabled for debate at a Tuesday session of the parliament, would add a provision to a law that requires the administration to safeguard Iran’s achievements and nuclear rights, the lawmaker added.
According to a parliamentary law on Iran’s appropriate and retaliatory response to any breach of the JCPOA by the other parties, the administration will have to boost uranium enrichment capacity to 190,000 SWUs within two years.
