Iran's nuclear chief warns EU patience is running thin

BRUSSELS: Iran’s nuclear chief said on Tuesday he was warning the European Union’s top diplomat that Tehran’s patience was running out on the bloc’s pledges to keep up oil trade despite U.S. sanctions.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, said the Islamic Republic could resume its 20 percent uranium enrichment if it fails to see the economic benefit of the 2015 deal that placed curbs on its nuclear program.

“If we cannot sell our oil and we don’t enjoy financial transactions, then I don’t think keeping the deal will benefit us anymore,” Salehi told Reuters ahead of a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Brussels.

“I will pass certainly a word of caution to her (Mogherini): I think the period of patience for our people is getting more limited and limited,” he said. “We are running out of the assumed timeline, which was in terms of months.”

The meeting was due on Tuesday afternoon, with no media statements expected afterwards.

Under the 2015 deal, Iran restricted its disputed nuclear program, widely seen in the West as a disguised effort to develop the means to make atomic bombs, in exchange for an end to international sanctions.

U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord in May, arguing that it did not rein in Iran’s ballistic missile program or support for armed proxies, and re-imposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports this month.

But Europe sees the nuclear deal as an important element of international security.

The EU and other remaining parties – China and Russia – have struggled to preserve trade incentives for Iran to respect the deal’s nuclear curbs under U.S. pressure.