European foreign ministers met on Monday for crisis talks on the Iran nuclear deal, as Britain warned the “small window” to save the accord was closing, with Tehran breaching the agreement.
Tensions in the Gulf have soared since the United States last year pulled out of the 2015 deal and reimposed sanctions on Iran, hammering its economy and prompting Tehran to break limits on uranium enrichment and stockpiling.
The European Union is desperately trying to prevent the deal unravelling completely, seeing it as the best way to stop Tehran acquiring atomic weapons, and the issue was top of the agenda as ministers from the bloc met in Brussels.
British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt -- who held phone talks with his US and Iranian counterparts over the weekend -- insisted “the deal isn’t dead yet”.
“Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear weapon. We think there is still some closing but small window to keep the deal alive,” Hunt told reporters.
Britain, France and Germany — the three European parties to the deal — on Sunday issued a joint statement saying they were “extremely concerned” by Iran’s recent breaches as well as by US sanctions They called for dialogue to resolve the crisis.