TEHRAN – Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said that the European Union trio, known as E3, still think they’re living in the 19th century when they did whatever they liked.

“E3 think they’re living in the 19th Century, when they dictated to countries, lied, & got away with it,” Zarif tweeted on Wednesday.

Zarif again urged the Europeans to fulfil their commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the JCPOA, rather than submitting to the U.S. bullying.

“Forget about compensating for US: fulfill your own obligations. EVEN JUST ONE,” he said.

The chief diplomat added, “IRAN is NOT the one emptying the accord of its substance—the E3 is.”

Foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement on Tuesday announcing they have formally triggered the dispute mechanism in the nuclear deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.

The European countries failed to protect Iran’s benefits from the deal. However, after patiently watching for a whole year and seeing no clear action from the European signatories, Iran started to partially reduce its commitments.

Iran has said its decision is based on paragraph 36 of the JCPOA. 

Paragraph 36 provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.

Iran has been insisting that if the EU trio implements its commitments Tehran will reverse its decisions. 

NA/PA