WASHINGTON — World powers on Tuesday implored Iran to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, a day after it announced that it had exceeded a 300-kilogram cap on its stockpile of low enriched uranium. But while expressing regret at Iran’s move, European nations said they were looking to ratchet up diplomatic efforts to find ways to keep Iran in the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and were not yet ready to declare the deal dead or to move for UN sanctions against Iran.

“We regret this decision by Iran,” the foreign ministers of France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the European Union External Action Service said in a joint statement July 2. “We are urgently considering next steps … in close coordination with other [JCPOA] participants."

A European diplomat, speaking not for attribution, told Al-Monitor July 2, “We are urging Iran to avoid taking further steps away from JCPOA, and urge them very clearly to come back into compliance.”

French President Emmanuel Macron discussed Iran with US President Donald Trump in a phone call July 1. “The two leaders discussed the Iranian regime’s decision to increase uranium enrichment levels beyond what was negotiated in the failed [JCPOA],” the White House said in a readout of the call.