Iran Talks "Complicated" By Nuclear Enrichment: European Powers

The 2015 deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

Iran is making talks on reviving the nuclear deal with world powers "more complicated" by accelerating its atomic programme, Germany, France and the United Kingdom said on Thursday. The foreign ministers from the three European countries said Tuesday's report by the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA showing that Iran had raised its uranium enrichment to 60 percent of purity was a cause for "grave concern", while talks to save the 2015 deal remain at a standstill. Under the accord, Iran had committed to keep enrichment to 3.67 percent, though it had stepped this up to 20 percent in January, before further boosting its capabilities to the current 60 percent. The development of these new capacities are "key steps in the development of a nuclear weapon and Iran has no credible civilian need for either measure," the European foreign ministers said in a statement.