A top Iranian official warned on Wednesday that Iran could withdraw from a key nuclear nonproliferation treaty if Europe followed through on its threats to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
The remarks, from Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, came during a rare on-the-record briefing with reporters in New York, where he was attending meetings at the United Nations. Mr. Gharibabadi laid out his country’s positions on a range of issues, setting the stage for nuclear talks with European counterparts in Istanbul on Friday.
Since negotiations between the United States and Iran collapsed in June as Israel launched a wave of attacks on Iran, setting off a 12-day war, Tehran has faced additional pressure from Europe about making concessions on its nuclear program.
Britain, France and Germany announced this month that they would enforce tough U.N. sanctions on Iran by the end of August if the country did not make concrete progress on a deal to limit its nuclear program. The mechanism for applying the sanctions is called a “snapback,” and it refers to a term in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers that allows parties to the deal to impose sanctions on Iran before the deal expires at the end of October this year if it has violated its terms.
Mr. Gharibabadi, who is part of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team, warned that enacting snapback sanctions would provoke Iran to retaliate, including potentially by withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, one of the last remaining international safeguards on its nuclear program.
Iranian officials have made similar threats in the past, saying the country would withdraw from the treaty if Israel or the United States attacked its nuclear sites. But even after the United States and Israel did just that during the recent war, Iran did not follow through on that threat.
Mr. Gharibabadi said Iran had shown restraint so far, but he added, “I’m quite confident that if the snapback is triggered, Iran will not show more restraint in this regard.”
He said Iran would continue to engage with Europeans who hold the snapback leverage, but was also open to resuming talks with Washington.
“We cannot chose one of them; we should work on both of them,” he said, adding that, for Iran, negotiations with Americans “would have more benefits.”
Iran and the United States had held five rounds of nuclear talks, mediated by Oman, and were scheduled to meet for a sixth when Israel attacked Iran on June 13, setting off the war and collapsing the talks.
“Iran’s policies have not been changed after the aggression; we are even more determined to pursue our policies,” said Mr. Gharibabadi. Iran was ready to return to talks with the Trump administration “tomorrow,” he said, if the United States agreed to a set of trust-building principles.
But Mr. Gharibabadi reiterated that Iran would not give up its right to enrich uranium at lower civilian levels — a central demand of the Trump administration — repeating Iran’s assertion that it has not pursued a nuclear weapon.
After the United States bombed Iran’s three nuclear facilities in Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan, Tehran said it would suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, and inspectors were forced to leave the country. Iran announced that the agency’s director, Rafael Grossi, would not be allowed to enter the country.
Mr. Gharibabadi said that a team of technical experts from the nuclear watchdog would visit Tehran in the coming weeks to discuss a framework for Iran and the agency to engage. Mr. Gharibabadi said that the team would not be allowed to visit the damaged nuclear sites because, he said, Iran was not conducting enrichment activity at the locations and, therefore, there was no reason for inspections.
President Trump has said that Iran’s nuclear facilities were “obliterated,” and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has said publicly that the sites were severely and extensively damaged and not operational. The fate of Iran’s nearly 900-pound stockpile of highly enriched uranium, which could make several bombs if Iran decided to weaponize its program, remains unclear. U.N. inspectors said last month, after the attacks, that Iran could repair its facilities and restart enrichment within a few months.
On Wednesday, Mr. Gharibabadi offered little clarity on the whereabouts of the stockpile and the scope of the damage.
“Our Atomic Energy Organization is assessing, actually, the damages to the nuclear installations, and we are waiting to receive their report,” he said. “In this regard, it’s a very dangerous work. We do not know what has happened there.”