Britain, France, and Germany warned Iran that a failure to respect its obligations within the 2015 nuclear deal was jeopardizing the possibility of reviving the agreement, in a strongly worded statement issued on Wednesday.
The three countries, who are signatories to the deal and are collectively known as the E3, said the Iranian government’s ongoing violations of the terms set out in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action undermined the non-proliferation benefits of the JCPOA, and raised concerns about its nuclear activities.
Analysts have suggested that the Iranian government’s current uranium enrichment programme, which breaches the terms of the deal, is a means to pressure the US to reach an agreement on Iran’s terms, and remove current US sanctions still in place.
Also this week, the Biden administration told Venezuela and Cuba not to allow Iranian ships to dock at their ports, following suspicions that the vessels could be carrying missiles and speed boats.
Middle east experts believe the development could be a strategy to place additional pressure on the US to lift sanctions ahead of any agreement over the nuclear deal.
And the US said Iran was behind a recent drone attack on Iraq’s Irbil airbase, which crashed into a warehouse belonging to the US’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The warehouse was destroyed though no injuries were reported from the incident, which is one of 300 attacks on US assets in Iraq in the last 18 months.
A US commander said the drone had been made in Iran, and posed a greater threat than previous attacks as the drone had better precision. Drone attacks in Iraq have escalated in the last month, and a growing threat from Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces — which are believed to be made up of Iran-backed militias — has left more than 500 Iraqi demonstrators dead.
