BRUSSELS • Scrambling to save the nuclear agreement with Iran, European foreign ministers have declared that Iranian breaches so far were not serious enough to take steps that could lead to reimposed international sanctions and a collapse of the accord.
That conclusion, reached at a meeting in Brussels on Monday, effectively extended a lifeline for the 2015 nuclear agreement in defiance of pressure by the Trump administration.
The Iran nuclear agreement has been increasingly imperilled since the US abandoned it more than a year ago and renewed its own sanctions on Iran.
The European Union ministers reiterated their view that the deal is the only option for curbing Iran's nuclear programme.
In a separate development, a United Arab Emirates (UAE) oil tanker travelling through the Strait of Hormuz stopped in Iranian waters and switched off its transponder more than two days ago, according to shipping tracking data, amid heightened tensions over a spate of incidents involving commercial vessels in the Persian Gulf.
The Panama-flagged Riah stopped transmitting its position late last Saturday and was last shown off the coast of Iran's Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz.
It was unclear yesterday what happened to the tanker, which was on its way to Sharjah in the UAE before diverting sharply towards Iranian waters and slowing to a halt, tracking data showed.
A UAE government spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. The United States said it was probing the fate of the small Emirati tanker.
In recent weeks, Iran has exceeded the amount and purity of the uranium it is permitted under the nuclear accord, transgressions confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Teheran has said it intends to breach the limits even more unless it gets what the accord promised: economic relief.
Triggering the dispute resolution article in the accord would start a process that could lead to the restoration of all the sanctions placed on Iran. That, many analysts say, would almost certainly doom the agreement.
The EU's reluctance to use the provision came despite pressure from both the US and Israel, which say Iran's breaches are a signal of its intent to move towards the capacity to make an atomic bomb.
"For the time being, none of the parties to the agreement has signalled its intention to invoke this article," Ms Federica Mogherini, the EU's top foreign policy official, told a news conference after the foreign ministers' meeting.
She said "none of them, for the moment, for the time being, with the current data we have had", believes there has been "significant non-compliance".
The conclusion was denounced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose government views Iran as the country's most serious security threat.
"The European Union's response to Iranian violations reminds me of the European appeasement of the 1930s," Mr Netanyahu said in a statement reported by Israeli media. "There are probably some in Europe who will not wake up until Iranian missiles fall on European soil. Then it probably will be too late."
Ms Mogherini said the nuclear deal is still the only available option. "The deal has avoided Iran developing a nuclear weapon and today everyone recognises that there is no alternative," she added. "This is the most dramatic and difficult stage."
Iran has sent mixed signals about its intentions in recent days, with President Hassan Rouhani expressing willingness to open new talks with Washington - once sanctions are removed.
But a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran, Mr Behrouz Kamalvandi, on Monday said that unless Europe could salvage the deal, his country would return its nuclear programme to its status before the accord.
NYTIMES, WASHINGTON POST, BLOOMBERG
