Iran deal under threat as Europeans to trigger dispute mechanism

Britain, France, and Germany will trigger the
dispute resolution mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, two European
diplomats said on Tuesday, the biggest step the Europeans have taken in
response as Tehran has backed off nuclear commitments.
In one of the strongest calls yet from Europe for a
new agreement to replace the 2015 deal that Washington abandoned two years ago,
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the way forward was to agree a new
“Trump deal.”
Washington’s European allies have tried to keep the
nuclear agreement from collapsing since President Donald Trump pulled the United
States out of it in 2018. Under the agreement, international sanctions against
Iran were lifted in return for Tehran agreeing to curbs on its nuclear program.
But Washington has reimposed sanctions, denying Iran
most of the economic benefits. Iran has responded by gradually exceeding many
of the limitations it had signed up to in the deal. This month it said it would
abandon limits on its production of enriched uranium, a step the Europeans said
was likely to force them to respond.
The European diplomats said Britain, France, and
Germany would notify the European Union later on Tuesday that they were
triggering the dispute resolution mechanism.
Under the mechanism outlined in the deal, the EU
would then inform the other parties - Russia and China as well as Iran itself.
There would then be 15 days to resolve the differences, a deadline which can be
extended by consensus.
The process can ultimately lead to a “snapback” -
the reimposition of sanctions in place under previous UN resolutions.
Credibility
“At one point we have to show our credibility,” said
one of the European diplomats. The second diplomat said: “Our intention is not
to restore sanctions, but to resolve our differences through the very mechanism
that was created in the deal.”
Washington’s exit from the nuclear pact, and the
severe economic distress caused by the US sanctions that followed, have fed one
of the biggest escalations in hostility between the United States and Iran
since Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
That has accelerated sharply since January 3, when
the US killed the most powerful Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani,
in a drone strike in Baghdad.
On January 8, Iran accidentally shot down a
Ukrainian airliner while its forces were on high alert following strikes on US
targets. After days of denials, the Iranian authorities acknowledged
responsibility for the crash, and have since faced days of anti-government
demonstrations at home.
Trump says his aim in quitting the nuclear deal was
to force Iran to sign up to a more stringent pact. Tehran says it will not
renegotiate as long as US sanctions are in place.
Britain’s Johnson, a conservative who has pitched
himself as an ally of Trump who can help bridge the diplomatic gap between the
United States and Europe, said he wanted to avoid a military conflict with
Iran.
“Let’s dial this thing down,” he said in an
interview with the BBC.
On the deal, he said: “If we’re going to get rid of
it, let’s replace it and let’s replace it with the Trump deal... President
Trump is a great dealmaker, by his own account. Let’s work together to replace
the JCPOA and get the Trump deal instead.”