TEHRAN - Bahram Qassemi, Iran’s ambassador to France, said on Thursday that intensification of the United States’ maximum pressure against Iran will just spread unilateralism.

“Those who help the United States intensify maximum pressure against Iran are moving on the path of spreading unilateralism and destabilizing the region,” IRNA quoted him as saying in a tweet.

He said in another tweet, “Europe which claimed of supporting the JCPOA [the 2015 nuclear deal] never fulfilled its economic commitments.”

He described the INSTEX - the Instrument in support of Trade Exchanges – as an “empty box” and “leverage of propaganda”.

“Now, they are talking about an action which will lead to collapse of the JCPOA. This is the same result which the United States wants,” he said.

He was pointing to Europe’s triggering the dispute mechanism.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom, three parties to the nuclear deal, issued a joint statement on January 14 announcing they have formally triggered the dispute mechanism that may lead to the snapback of UN sanctions against Iran.

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally 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.

In response to this move, on May 8, 2019, Iran announced that its “strategic patience” is over and started to gradually reduce its commitments to the JCPOA at bi-monthly intervals. At the time Iran announced if the European parties to the deal take concrete steps to shield Iran’s economy from the U.S. sanctions it will reverse its decision.

However, seeing no action by the Europeans, on January 5 Iran took the last and final step by removing all limits on its nuclear activities.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned on Monday that Iran may quit the NPT if the Europeans refer the Iran case to the UN Security Council.

NA/PA