After a meeting with the International Atomic Energy Agency Iran claims the EU has failed to act on assurances made after the US pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal
ADVERTISEMENTIran's nuclear chief said on Sunday that European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal have failed to fulfill their commitments under the pact.
The claim comes after the country's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met the acting chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Cornel Feruta, amidst rising tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.
"Regarding the European Union's role as compensatory for the United States' absence in the nuclear deal, to fill the gap, they, unfortunately, failed to act as they had promised," announced Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of Iran's Nuclear Energy Agency.
"We do of course express the view that timely and active cooperation is very important, and also the fact that time is very important," Feruta told the press conference.
On Friday Iran's Atomic Energy Authority upped the stakes further by saying it had started lifting restrictions imposed on its nuclear research by the 2015 deal. But that move has been criticised by France, which says the Iranians are not acting correctly.
"Iran comes up with the wrong answers to a bad decision by the USA to pull out of the deal, said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on a television programme. "They're wrong because enforcing acts of disengagement from the deal, which we'll call the Vienna agreement, only induces escalation."
France, Germany and Britain have tried to launch a barter trade mechanism with Iran protecting it from US sanctions but have struggled to get it off the ground.