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DUBAI/LONDON, June 17
Iran announced on Monday it would breach uranium enrichment limits in 10 days in a move that drew an accusation of “nuclear blackmail” from Washington, but it added that European nations still had time to save the nuclear deal that sets those curbs.
In an indication of Western concern at Iran’s initiative, a White House National Security Council spokesman said the plan amounted to “nuclear blackmail” and must be met with increased international pressure.
Britain said if Iran breached limits agreed under the deal then London would look at “all options”. Close US ally Israel, Iran’s arch foe, urged world powers to step up sanctions against Tehran swiftly should it exceed the enriched uranium limit.
However European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the EU would only react to any breach if the International Atomic Energy Agency formally identified one.
The announcement by Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, timed for a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels, puts more pressure on Europe to come up with new terms for Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal.
The deal has steadily unravelled since the Trump administration pulled America out of the accord last year and re-imposed tough economic sanctions on Iran, deeply cutting into its sale of crude oil abroad and sending its economy into freefall. Europe has so far been unable to offer Iran a way around the US sanctions.
Kamalvandi accused Europeans of “killing time” as the clock runs down. “If this condition continues, there will be no deal” anymore, Kamalvandi said. — Agencies