Iranian envoys says UK making 'big mistake' by not lifting sanctions

The UK, France and Germany should not breach the terms of the Iran nuclear deal by refusing to lift sanctions on Iranian missile development, Tehran’s charge d’affaires to London said on Wednesday according to the Guardian.

Mehdi Hosseini Matin said that such a breach would lead to the final collapse of the deal, known formally as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Hosseini’s comments came on the eve of a UN security council debate on Iran. 

“The UK and its European partners need to think strategically and it will be a big mistake not to lift sanctions … Europe should think twice … They will just have shot themselves in the foot … The structure of the JCPOA should be preserved, and if it is not they would be held accountable,” Matin told the Guardian.

The UK, France and Germany announced earlier this week that they would breach the JCPOA by maintaining sanctions on Iran’s missile production, citing its selling of drones to Russia as it wages war on Ukraine and advances Tehran has made in ballistic missile technology.

The death of the JCPOA

Both of these things are considered by the three European powers to be breaches of the deal, something the Iranian regime has denied.

Under the terms of the JCPOA, sanctions on Iran’s missile production were to be lifted this October. However, in 2018, Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the Obama-brokered deal and Iran responded with breaching its terms.

The decision of the UK, Germany and France to breach the JCPOA, along with Iran’s own breaking of the terms agreed in 2015, essentially signal the death of the deal.

Speaking to France 24, the head of the UN's nuclear inspectorate said of the JCPOA: "it is an empty shell, basically ... no one has declared it dead, but there is no diplomatic activity around it."

The risk now is that Iran could qualitatively and quantitatively upscale its enrichment of uranium towards weaponisation. An Iranian official told the Guardian that Tehran could even withdraw from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

News that European powers could effectively kill the JCPOA comes amid reports that the US could may come to an informal agreement with Iran over halting its nuclear capacity at 60%, with the US unfreezing billions in Iranian assets.