Iran holds back on threat to breach nuclear deal

Country may be waiting on outcome of talks setting out plans to kickstart trade with EU

Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Thu 27 Jun 2019 13.05 BST Last modified on Thu 27 Jun 2019 13.18 BST

Iran has held back on its threat to make its first breach of the nuclear deal and may be waiting for the outcome of talks with EU powers, China and Russia in Vienna.

At the talks on Friday the EU countries will set out plans to kickstart trade between Tehran and the bloc, one of the Iranian preconditions for sticking with the deal.

Iran had threatened to break the 300kg limit for low-enriched uranium stockpiles on Thursday, but experts at the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency said the progress in increasing the stockpiles had been slower than expected and the limit may not be reached until the weekend.

Iran was said to be adding to its stockpiles at a rate of 1kg a day and could have sped up the process if it had wished to do so. There was little mention of the stockpile limit in the official Iranian press.

The EU powers are expected to unveil a plan to set up a multimillion-euro credit line to kickstart a trading mechanism known as Instex designed to help EU businesses trade with Iran while avoiding US Treasury sanctions.

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