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Iran nuclear accord: developments since the US quit Paris, July 3 (AFP) Jul 03, 2018 President Donald Trump in May withdrew the United States from a hard-won accord that Washington and other world powers signed with Iran in 2015 to control Tehran's nuclear programme. With foreign ministers of the five countries still supporting the deal due to meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday, here is a look back over developments since Trump's decision.
"The Iran deal is defective at its core," he says in a televised address. Tehran's regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel applaud Trump's decision. But Britain, France and Germany swiftly say they are "determined" to save the nuclear deal and its economic benefits for Iran. President Hassan Rouhani warns Iran could resume uranium enrichment "without limit" if negotiations with Europe, Russia and China on saving the accord do not produce positive results.
He starts a diplomatic tour the next day to save the accord. On May 16 the European Union launches work on an economic plan to keep the Iran nuclear deal alive.
On May 24 the UN's nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, says Iran continues to respect the terms of the 2015 accord. A day later, in Vienna, signatories of the nuclear deal meet without the United States in a bid to save the agreement. On May 30 the United States places several Iranian state groups on its sanctions blacklist, accusing them of serious human rights abuses and censorship.
The following day Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims this is aimed at producing nuclear weapons to be used against his country.
Six people are arrested in Belgium, France and Germany. The opposition group says the Iranian regime is behind the alleged plot. Tehran dismisses it is a "false flag", designed to overshadow an upcoming trip by Rouhani to Europe. The Iranian president arrives in Switzerland on July 2, for a European trip billed as of "prime importance" by his government.
US secondary sanctions on firms dealing with Iran would "snap back" in August for trade in cars and metals and in November for oil and banking transactions, the State Department official says. Rouhani responds on July 3 saying the United States can never prevent Iran from exporting its oil and Washington's goal is a "baseless fantasy". Iran's official IRNA news agency announces that the foreign ministers of Iran and the world powers still party to the 2015 deal with meet in Vienna on Friday, to discuss an "incentive package" aimed at persuading Iran to stay in the agreement.
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