Iran criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Friday for issuing a resolution demanding that Tehran provide access to two suspected nuclear sites.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi called the resolution “a completely unconstructive and disappointing step,” according to Reuters.
Meanwhile, Britain, France and Germany announced on Friday that they would not support a move by the United States to reimpose sanctions on Iran. The announcement comes after U.S. Special Representative for Iran said last week that the administration in Washington wants the arms embargo on Tehran—which is set to expire in October in accordance with terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers—to be extended indefinitely.
Responding to a U.S. warning that if the U.N. Security Council does not extend the arms embargo, Washington will trigger a snapback of all U.N. sanctions on Iran, the foreign ministers of the above three European countries responded harshly.
“We firmly believe that any unilateral attempt to trigger U.N. sanctions snapback would have serious adverse consequences in the U.N. Security Council,” they said in a statement. “We would not support such a decision, which would be incompatible with our current efforts to preserve the JCPOA.”
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded on social media, accusing the three European countries of serving the United States and Israel. In a tweet on Friday, Zarif said that the European countries in question “must stop public face-saving & muster the courage to state publicly what they admit privately: their failure to fulfill even own JCPOA duties due to total impotence in resisting US bullying Behind facade, E3 are accessories to Trump & Netanyahu—& in no position to counsel Iran.”
