Britain 'deeply worried' on Iran breach of nuclear deal

Britain’s foreign secretary on Monday expressed dismay at Iran’s breach of the 2015 nuclear deal, urging the country not to walk away from the agreement. Jeremy Hunt said he was deeply concerned with Tehran’s decision to restart the process of uranium enrichment but reiterated the U.K.’s commitment to making the deal work and de-escalating tensions in the region. “Deeply worried by Iran’s announcement that it has broken existing nuclear deal obligations,” Hunt said on Twitter. “UK remains committed to making deal work & using all diplomatic tools to deescalate regional tensions. I urge Iran to avoid any further steps away from JCPoA [nuclear deal] & come back into compliance.” On Monday Iran revealed that it had breached the limit set on its stockpile of low-enriched uranium, allowing its stockpile to exceed the 300 kilograms agreed under the deal. Iran had warned that it had intended to breach the deal if the EU was not able to bypass U.S. sanctions. The breach follows the U.S. withdrawal from the deal last year and Tehran’s frustration at the EU’s failure to counter crippling U.S. sanctions and boost trade with Iran. U.S. sanctions have deterred European businesses from conducting trade with Iran. Before the breach, the EU had announced the establishment of a trading mechanism, known as Instex, to allow European businesses to trade with Iran without facing scrutiny from the U.S. Under the Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), Iran agreed to destroy its stockpile of medium-enriched uranium and cut its stockpile of low-enriched uranium by 98%. The deal was signed by the U.K., the US, Russia, China, France, Germany and the EU in 2015. In October 2017 U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the U.S. would no longer be a signatory to the deal and thus withdrew from the agreement. Shortly afterwards, Washington imposed sanctions on Iran.