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Signatories to Iran Nuclear Deal Voice Concern Over Tehran's Breach of Uranium Stockpile

By Ken Bredemeier July 2, 2019

The remaining signatories to the 2015 international pact to restrain Iran's nuclear weapons development all voiced concern Tuesday that Tehran had exceeded the limit of how much low-enriched uranium it could stockpile.

Britain, France, Germany and the European Union said in a joint statement they had been "consistent and clear that our commitment to the nuclear deal depends on full compliance by Iran" and urged the Islamic Republic "to refrain from further measures that undermine" the accord.

The three countries and the EU said they "are urgently considering next steps" after Iran announced Monday that it had "crossed the 300-kilogram limit" of its stockpile of uranium enriched up to 3.67%, a claim later confirmed by the United Nations atomic watchdog agency.

President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the Iran nuclear deal last year, but Russia and China, two other countries that have stayed in it, also objected to Iran's breaching the uranium stockpile provision.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed U.S. economic sanctions against Tehran for effectively preventing it from selling the excess uranium it is producing. But he called on Iran to "show restraint, not yield to emotions" and to comply with the deal's provisions.

China expressed a similar view, voicing regret that Iran exceeded the stockpile limit, but contending that Washington's economic pressure against Tehran was at the root of the problem.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said, "As we have repeatedly stressed, the U.S. 'maximum pressure' is the root cause of the current tension on the Iranian nuclear issue."

Trump on Monday said he thinks Iran is "playing with fire" by breaching the stockpile limit.

"They know what they're doing. They know what they're playing with," Trump told reporters at the White House.

An earlier White House statement reiterated the U.S. position that it would "never allow" Iran to develop a nuclear weapon.

It further said Iran should be held to a standard of no uranium enrichment and that the Trump administration would continue its pressure campaign against Iran "until its leaders alter their course of action."

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif argued that breaching the stockpile limit did not violate the accord, because the deal has a provision that allows one party to respond when another party leaves the agreement.

Iran made the agreement with the six world powers and the EU in exchange for lifting of economic sanctions against Tehran. The United States withdrew from the accord last year and then reimposed its sanctions to curb Iran's oil exports and hobble its economy in an effort to force it to reopen talks on its nuclear program.

Iran's breach of the 2015 pact comes at a time of heightened tension in the Middle East centered on Tehran, whose military two weeks ago shot down an unmanned U.S. drone, with Washington claiming it did so in international airspace, while Iran says it was over its territory. The United States and Israel also have blamed Tehran for attacks on oil tankers in the Persian Gulf, on oil fields in Saudi Arabia and in Baghdad.

Some U.S. national security advisers urged Trump to attack Iran military targets after the drone strike, but he backed off at the last minute after learning that such an attack would kill about 150 Iranians, which he said he did not think was a proportionate response to the downing of the unmanned drone.