Iran breaches limits on enriched uranium

Associated Press

BERLIN

Efforts by world powers to preserve a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with Iran grew more complicated Monday with confirmation that Tehran had breached the pact’s limitations on stockpiles of low-enriched uranium.

The announcement by Iran, later verified by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, that it had followed through with its threat to increase the stockpiles raises the pressure on the countries – Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain, along with the European Union – trying to preserve the pact after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States last year.

European signatories to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, have warned of consequences but have not yet said what they might be.

British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman, James Slack, said Iran’s announcement was “extremely concerning.”

“We will continue working with our JCPOA partners – in particularly with German and France – to keep the nuclear deal in place. This is in our shared security interests,” Slack said. “We have been consistently clear that our commitment to the JCPOA depends on Iran complying in full with the terms of the deal, and we urge them to reverse this step.”

In a statement, a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, one of the guarantors of the pact, called on Iran “to reverse this step and to refrain from further measures that undermine the nuclear deal.”

“The EU remains fully committed to the agreement as long as Iran continues to fully implement its nuclear commitments,” spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said.