Iran appeared to have at least temporarily backed away from an ultimatum on breaching the 2015 nuclear deal, as European nations made last-ditch efforts to salvage what remains of the multilateral accord and avert a slide toward war.
Iran's atomic energy organization had said the country would probably exceed the cap on stockpiles of low-grade uranium on Thursday, as it pushes back against crippling U.S. economic sanctions imposed after President Donald Trump's administration unilaterally exited the agreement more than a year ago.
But by 6:30 p.m. in Iran, there was no word from Tehran that it had done so.
A European Union diplomat said remaining parties to the deal were "scrambling" to find a solution. Whether they had been successful could become clear after a meeting in Vienna today of the commission that governs the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the diplomat said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Unnamed diplomats were cited by other media as saying that Iran was still short of the cap on stockpiles of low-grade enriched uranium that would put it in violation for the first time of the nuclear accord.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Majid Takht Ravanchi, wouldn't say if Iran had violated the deal yet but said European nations weren't working quickly enough to guarantee Iran could continue to trade with them despite U.S. sanctions.
Tensions in the Persian Gulf soared after the U.S. stopped granting waivers to buyers of Iranian oil in May. Trump says he wants to negotiate a new deal that would also restrict Iran's missile programs and support for armed proxies around the region, but Iran has refused to talk while its economy and -- more recently -- its leaders are under sanctions.
Iran's downing of an American drone last week in disputed circumstances brought the Middle East to the cusp of war, with Trump calling off planned retaliatory airstrikes minutes before the action was set to start.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on May 8 said his nation would withdraw from parts of the 2015 deal unless Europe provided an economic lifeline within 60 days.
He said Iran would no longer comply with the uranium cap and a limit on stocks of heavy water after the U.S. revoked waivers allowing it to send excess heavy water to Oman and ship out surplus enriched uranium in exchange for natural, or yellowcake, uranium.
The U.K., France and Germany have designed a financial mechanism to enable trade with Iran to continue despite the threat of American penalties but have so far been unable to get it started. On Wednesday, European nations said they were finalizing the vehicle, known as Instex.
"Personally, I don't think it will be enough," Ravanchi told reporters Thursday in New York. "It took them more than a year to put this in place, and it's still not operational. It's as if you have a beautiful car, you enjoy looking at it, but there's no gas inside. So all you can do is look."
Meanwhile, the U.S. special representative for Iran, Brian Hook, met with top European diplomats Thursday in Paris and said he wants to get tougher on Iran, instead of clinging to the nuclear deal that the U.S. pulled out of last year.
War with Iran is "not necessary," Hook said in an interview.
"We are not looking for any conflict in the region," he said. But if the U.S. is attacked, "we will respond with military force."
To that end, the U.S. is trying to drum up support for an international naval force in the Persian Gulf, notably to protect shipping.
"The president would like to see an international response of like-minded countries who could come together and contribute assets that could be used to enhance maritime security in the region," Hook said.
But acting U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, at his first NATO meeting this week, left Brussels with no firm commitments after discussing the idea with U.S. allies.
Information for this article was contributed by Ladane Nasseri, Golnar Motevalli, David Wainer and Tim Ross of Bloomberg News; and by Sylvie Corbet, Angela Charlton, Philipp Jenne, Edith M. Lederer and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press.
A Section on 06/28/2019