Iran nuclear deal meeting postponed until February

BRUSSELS (AA): Parties to the Iran nuclear deal will meet in February because more expert-level discussions are necessary, EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell announced Friday.

The European members of the pact – the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, also known as E3 – triggered the dispute resolution mechanism Jan. 14 after Iran decided to stop complying with the 2015 nuclear deal.

As a mediator of the process, Borrell made great efforts to negotiate with concerned parties in different formats.

But due to the complexity of the situation, the parties to the nuclear deal – including the E3 plus China, Russia, and Iran – needed to postpone the meeting until February to give more time for discussions with experts.

Besides assessing the future implementation of the deal, experts will assess the impact of U.S unilateral withdrawal from the agreement and its decision on re-imposing sanctions against Iran, that all the remaining members regret, according to a statement.

Borrell said, however, that all the participants are determined to preserve the agreement.

Early January saw a dramatic surge of confrontations between the U.S. and Iran following the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani by a U.S. drone strike outside Baghdad’s airport.