EU holds Iran nuclear crisis talks as Tehran issues fresh threats

BRUSSELS, Belgium — European foreign ministers hold crisis talks on saving the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal, as Britain warns the “small window” for success is closing and Tehran issues fresh threats of restarting its atomic program.

Tensions in the Gulf have soared since last year, when the United States pulled out of the 2015 deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, hammering its economy and prompting Tehran to break limits on uranium enrichment and stockpiling.

The European Union is desperately trying to prevent the deal unraveling completely, seeing it as the best way to stop Tehran acquiring atomic weapons. The issue is top of the agenda as ministers from the bloc meet in Brussels.

But Iran is piling fresh pressure on Europe, demanding concrete measures to give it relief from US sanctions and threatening to return its nuclear program to where it was before the curbs imposed by the 2015 deal.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt — who held phone talks with his US and Iranian counterparts over the weekend — insists “the deal isn’t dead yet. Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear weapon. We think there is still some closing but small window to keep the deal alive,” Hunt tells reporters.

Britain, France and Germany — the three European parties to the deal — on Sunday issued a joint statement saying they were “extremely concerned” by Iran’s recent breaches as well as by US sanctions, and called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.

— AFP