France, UK reaffirm commitment to Iran nuclear deal

UK prime minister Boris Johnson and French president Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed their commitment to the Iran nuclear during a meeting on the sidelines of the Berlin conference on Libya. They also agreed on the need to define a long-term framework to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.
“On Iran, the leaders reiterated their commitment to the JCPOA [nuclear accord] and also acknowledged the need to define a long-term framework to prevent Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon,” a Downing Street spokeswoman said, and added: “They agreed on the importance of de-escalation and of working with international partners to find a diplomatic way through the current tensions”.
Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action together with the US, France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China. However, US president Donald Trump abandoned it in 2018, which led Iran to begin dropping its commitments under the deal.
Earlier this month, Iran’s foreign ministry said that the killing of commander Qassem Soleimani would prompt Iranian officials to take a bigger step away from the nuclear deal. Soleimani was killed with a US drone strike while travelling in a car convoy. The development raised further tensions between Washington and Tehran, who vowed retaliation.
Iran said the withdrawal from its commitments is a reaction to the US exit from the deal in 2018 and the subsequent sanctions, and added it would no longer respect limits set on how many centrifuges it can use to enrich uranium.
“Britain, France and Germany, three parties to the Iranian deal, claim that Europe has kept its obligations under JCPOA, however, in reality, they have not imported Iran’s oil and have not facilitated Iran’s international banking actions,” said Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.