Iranian diplomat: Uranium limit breach can be reversed with economic benefits

Iran’s UN ambassador says if his country exceeds limits on low-enriched uranium set by the 2015 nuclear deal, that can be quickly reversed as soon as Tehran sees recovery in its oil and banking sectors.

Majid Takht Ravanchi tells reporters at a briefing today that he didn’t have “any exact information” on whether the 300-kilogram limit has been breached. He says he hopes that at Friday’s meeting in Vienna of the five parties remaining in the nuclear deal “tangible results can be achieved so that we can reverse our decision.”

Ravanchi says Iran isn’t planning to get out of the 2015 agreement, which the United States left last year.

But he says Iran is “not happy with the Europeans” supporting the agreement — Britain, France and Germany — because it has taken so much time to put in operation a program to allow Iran to trade. The three countries said Wednesday they are finalizing a “special purpose vehicle” called INSTEX to facilitate trade while avoiding US sanctions.

The Trump administration has called for dialogue with Iran, but Ravanchi says the US “maximum pressure policy is not designed to prepare for dialogue. They want to act like the older brother telling the younger brother how to behave,” he says. “The right atmosphere” is needed, and right now “it’s an atmosphere of animosity.”

Ravanchi says “sanctions and dialogue are mutually exclusive.”

— AP