nuclear-news

Foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany – three signatory states to the agreement – met in Berlin to formulate a strategy for the next crucial months with Iran and its nuclear programme under focus.

At a meeting in Vienna, the International Atomic Energy Authority (AEA) called on Iran to stop blocking its inspectors from two sites and the Trump administration announced that it has drafted an extension to an arms embargo on Iran which is due to be lifted in a few months time.

• The IAEA motion was proposed by France, Germany and Britain after sustained US pressure. And although it was passed by the 35 nation board of governors, Russian and China, two fellow signatories to the nuclear agreement, opposed it and eight other countries abstained.

  The lifting of the UN arms embargo on Iran is due to happen in October as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The Trump administration, which pulled out of the agreement two years ago, wants it to continue. Washington has threatened that a rejection of an extension by the UN Security Council will lead to it activating a clause to re-impose all UN sanctions on Iran.

• Such a move would, almost certainly, kill off the JCPOA which was signed after years of painstaking negotiations in 2015. …….. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/iran-nuclear-deal-europe-us-trump-aea-a9576306.html