EU says Iran deal parties trying to salvage deal, not ready to trigger dispute mechanism

The remaining parties to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal are not yet prepared to trigger the accord’s dispute-resolution mechanism over Iran’s decision to reduce its compliance to protest crippling US economic sanctions, the European Union foreign policy chief said Monday.

The cautious response by the five world powers that remain in the deal after the Donald Trump administration’s withdrawal last year is testament to their assessment that Iran is reacting only after the United States in May imposed a virtual blockade on Iranian oil exports even while it has fully complied until now with the accord. It comes as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had granted his Iranian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, a limited visa, restricting his movements to attend United Nations-related meetings in New York this week.

“US diplomats don’t roam around Tehran, so we don’t see any reason for Iranian diplomats to roam freely around New York City, either,” Pompeo told The Washington Post in an interview Sunday. “It’s absolutely appropriate that we provide Foreign Minister Zarif and his delegation with all the rights that they are due under the UN headquarters agreement, and nothing more than that.”

The visa, issued in Bern, Switzerland, only on Saturday after uncertainty whether it was going to be granted, restricts Zarif’s movements to the UN headquarters, the Iranian mission to the UN in New York six blocks away, and the official Iranian residence, The Washington Post report said. Pompeo expressed resentment of the think-tank meetings and media interviews Zarif grants in New York, and the secretary of state said he would like to get on Iranian television to talk to the Iranian people.