France trying to restart talks with Iran as nuclear tensions spike
French President Macron tells Iranian counterpart by phone that he is concerned about weakening of nuclear deal; Tehran says it will up enrichment level
TEHRAN, Iran — French President Emmanuel Macron told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani Saturday that he is trying to find a way by July 15 to resume dialogue between Iran and Western partners.
In a telephone conversation, Macron said he would consult with the Iranian authorities and international partners concerned with a view to resuming talks involving all concerned parties to bring about the “necessary deescalation” of the situation, the Elysee palace said.
Macron expressed “strong concern about new weakening” of the 2015 accord aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and of the consequences that would follow.
Macron told Rouhani they would “explore between now and July 15 conditions for resumed dialogue among all parties.” The statement didn’t elaborate.
Europe is struggling to save the 2015 accord after US President Donald Trump abandoned it last year. European parties to the deal have yet to offer a way for Iran to avoid the sweeping economic sanctions imposed by Trump after pulling out of the deal, especially those targeting its crucial oil sales.
A video message Saturday by Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Iran’s supreme leader, included him saying that “Americans directly and Europeans indirectly violated the deal,” part of Tehran’s hardening tone with Europe.
On May 8, Iran announced it would no longer respect the limits set on the size of its stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water, and threatened to abandon further nuclear commitments, including exceeding the agreed uranium enrichment maximum from July 7.
It has also threatened to resume building from that date a heavy water reactor — capable of one day producing plutonium — in Arak in central Iran, a project that had been mothballed under the deal.
Velayati said that increasing enrichment closer to weapons-grade levels was “unanimously agreed upon by every component of the establishment.”
“We will show reaction exponentially as much as they violate it. We reduce our commitments as much as they reduce it,” said Velayati, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s adviser on international affairs. “If they go back to fulfilling their commitments, we will do so as well.”
He hinted that Iran would announce Sunday it was increasing enrichment to 5%. Iran stopped producing uranium enriched above 5% in January 2014 amid negotiations for the nuclear deal.
Under the atomic accord, Iran agreed to enrich uranium to no more than 3.67%, which is enough for peaceful pursuits but is far below weapons-grade levels of 90%. Iran denies it seeks nuclear weapons, but the nuclear deal sought to prevent that as a possibility by limiting enrichment and Iran’s stockpile of uranium to 300 kilograms (661 pounds).
On Monday, Iran and United Nations inspectors acknowledged it had broken the stockpile limit. Combining that with increasing its enrichment levels narrows the one-year window experts believe Iran would need to have enough material to build a nuclear weapon, if it chose to do so.
“This would be a very worrisome step that could substantially shorten the time Iran would need to produce the material needed for nuclear weapons,” said Miles Pomper, a senior fellow at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies’ James Marin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “Both Iran and the Trump administration should be looking for ways to de-escalate the crisis, rather than exacerbate it.”
The Times of Israel Community.