France/Iran nuclear deal - France: "Iran will gain nothing by leaving nuclear deal"

Published on July 4 in Arutz Sheva

Iran will gain nothing by departing from the terms of its nuclear agreement with world powers, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, after Tehran’s announcement that it will boost the enrichment level of its uranium.

“Iran will gain nothing by leaving the Vienna accord,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll told reporters in a daily briefing, according to the Reuters news agency.

“Putting it (the deal) into question will only increase the already heightened tensions in the region,” she added.

Earlier on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran will ignore the 3.67% maximum enrichment level for uranium, starting next Sunday.

That announcement came two days after Iran announced that it had amassed more low-enriched uranium than permitted, its first major breach of the nuclear pact.

“That’s why France with its European partners have asked strongly that Iran reverse the excess enrichment without delay and refrain from further measures that undermine its nuclear commitments,” Von der Muhll said on Wednesday.

Iran has threatened to abandon further nuclear commitments unless the deal's remaining partners -- Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia -- helped it circumvent US sanctions, especially to sell its oil.

Its latest announcements on breaching the nuclear deal follow a meeting last Friday with European, Russian and Chinese officials to discuss ways to save the 2015 nuclear following the US withdrawal.

Iran’s envoy to the meeting in Vienna said that European countries had offered too little to persuade Tehran to back off from its plans to breach limits imposed by the deal.

The EU earlier this year introduced a trade mechanism that would bypass US sanctions on Iran, in a bid to save the 2015 deal, but Iran has rejected that mechanism thus far.