Europeans Trigger Dispute Mechanism in Iran Nuclear Deal
Europeans Trigger Dispute Mechanism in Iran Nuclear Deal
(Bloomberg) --
The European Union initiated formal proceedings to resolve its nuclear dispute with Iran, setting up a potential showdown between Washington and Tehran at the United Nations Security Council.
The foreign ministers of France, Germany and the U.K. informed EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell of their decision on Tuesday. In the 2015 accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, Iran agreed with the U.S., Russia, China and the three European countries to include a dispute resolution mechanism. That could be used to send Iran back to the UN to face a re-imposition of UN sanctions, including on arms imports.
With the U.S. having withdrawn from the accord, finding a reason to trigger the so-called referral to the Security Council would fall to Europe: now that mechanism has been triggered. The step became more likely after Tehran’s government violated key provisions of the deal in response to U.S. sanctions.
U.K. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab told the House of Commons on Tuesday that breaches by Iran include exceeding levels of enriched uranium and announcing it would no longer adhere to limits on the number of centrifuges.
‘Acute Concerns’
“Since last May, Iran has step by step reduced its compliance with critical elements of the JCPOA leaving it a shell of an agreement,” Raab said. “Each of these actions were individually serious; together they now raise acute concerns around Iran’s nuclear ambitions.”
Meanwhile, the unity among the Europeans over Iran is being severely tested. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told the BBC that the U.S. sees “many, many faults” in the deal and that “if we are going to get rid of it, let’s replace it and let’s replace it with the Trump deal.”
But Raab said the U.K. and its European partners are triggering the dispute resolution mechanism in order to uphold the existing agreement.
“We do so with a view to bringing Iran back into full compliance,” Raab said. “We are triggering the DRM to re-enforce the diplomatic track, not to abandon it.”
‘Rapprochement’
Still, Raab said the U.K. is also open to a “broader rapprochement” with Iran, citing what he said was French President Emmanuel Macron’s call last year for an agreement that goes beyond the nuclear pact and tackles Iran’s destabilizing behavior in the region.
“We should be ambitious for a broader deal which deals not just with the nuclear issue... but all of those other wider concerns people have, and the region has, that the Europeans and the Americans have, about Iran’s conduct in the region,” Raab said.
As coordinator of the JCPOA, the EU will now try to resolve Iran’s nuclear violations within 15 days. Should they fail to find consensus, foreign ministers of signatory nations, including China and Russia, would convene to debate the matter. They’d have the option of sending Iran back to the UN’s decision-making body to face even stiffer international sanctions.
To contact the reporters on this story: Jonathan Tirone in Vienna at jtirone@bloomberg.net;Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson at fjackson@bloomberg.net, Stuart Biggs, Mark Williams
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