Iran’s Rouhani: EU nuke deal offer ‘disappointing’

By Ahmet Dursun

ANKARA (AA) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has described an EU proposal for maintaining the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the West as “disappointing”.

According to a Friday statement released by his office, Rouhani, during a phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said the proposal contained “no clear mechanism… for continued cooperation”.

The proposal, he added, “only contains a series of general commitments”.

Nevertheless, Rouhani said, Tehran was “still willing to cooperate” with Europe, depending on the outcome of a Friday ministerial meeting in Vienna at which the deal’s future will be discussed.

Merkel, for her part, reportedly stressed the need to continue the negotiations, reasserting the EU’s desire to keep the landmark agreement intact.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement, which was signed in 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 group of nations (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany).

Other members of the P5+1, however, say the deal in its current form represents the best means of tempering Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The deal places restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.