EU Will Keep Working to Preserve JCPOA

“My role...is to preserve the full implementation of the existing agreements. Again if something else can be built on it, this would be welcomed and accompanied by the European Union,” Mogherini told reporters during an EU foreign ministers meeting in Helsinki on Friday.

“Our work is to continue to ensure that there is full compliance from the Iranian side to its nuclear commitments,” she added.

Under the deal, reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany, Tehran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions.

Mogherini also said that the existing nuclear deal must not be sacrificed as part of any measure taken by Washington to forge a new security agreement with Tehran.

At the G7 summit in Biarritz, US President Donald Trump showed openness to his French counterpart's proposal of a summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper followed up on Wednesday by urging Tehran to engage, but Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Washington must first return to the deal and halt "economic terrorism" against his country.

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