Germany urges Europe to respond to Iran's nuclear violations

BRUSSELS - Germany's foreign minister called on Tuesday for European powers to forge a joint response to Iran's decision to scrap limits imposed on its nuclear enrichment under an arms control accord, but stopped short of calling for renewed U.N. sanctions.

After a crisis meeting with the British and French foreign ministers in Brussels, Heiko Maas voiced some of Europe's harshest criticism yet of Tehran's decision, despite a strong European desire to save the 2015 nuclear deal.

Berlin cannot accept Iran's decision to ignore limits of a nuclear arms control agreement, saying Europe had to react. Maas  adding that "what Iran has announced is, we believe, not the right course and so we need to find a joint response."

Iran said on Sunday it was scrapping limits on it enriching uranium following the U.S. killing of Iran's top military commander Qassem Soleimani, although it also said it would continue to cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog.

Its announcement left the 2015 deal it signed with the United States, Russia, China, Germany, France and Britain all but worthless.

"We cannot accept Iran suspending its commitments (on the nuclear deal). A reaction must follow and I am going to keep talking with my British and French colleagues. However, we hope this deal has a future but it does not depend on us only," Maas said.

Iranian state news agency IRNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying on Tuesday that Iran's nuclear deal with world powers has not been dissolved..

Iran, which says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes, has already breached many of the restrictions under the pact in response to Washington's withdrawal from the accord in 2018 and its re-imposition of sanctions on Tehran that have crippled the country's economy.

"The nuclear deal is not dead yet," said Araqchi, who is also a senior nuclear negotiator.

"We are ready to come back to full compliance with the deal depending on the ending of sanctions and gaining from the economic benefits of the deal."

On Tuesday Emmanuel Macron spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

Iran has criticized Britain, France and Germany for failing to salvage the pact by shielding Tehran’s economy from U.S. sanctions.

Those three European countries, known as the E3 are signatories to the deal.

France's foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Monday the substance of the Iran nuclear deal was slowly disappearing and European powers would decide in coming days whether to launch a dispute resolution process over Iranian violations. Diplomats told Reuters on Monday that the European parties to the deal would launch the process this week.