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“International law is a fundamental pillar of the international rules-based order. In this respect, the EU and its Member States recall that they will not recognize any changes to the 1967 borders unless agreed by Israelis and Palestinians. The two-state solution, with Jerusalem as the future capital for both States, is the only way to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region,” Borrell said in a statement on Monday, WAFA news agency reported.

“We strongly urge Israel to refrain from any unilateral decision that would lead to the annexation of any occupied Palestinian territory and would be, as such, contrary to International Law,” he said.

Elsewhere in his statement, Borrell expressed the EU’s willingness to help restart Israeli-Palestinian talks, adding that “the two-state solution, with Jerusalem (al-Quds) as the future capital for both states, is the only way to ensure sustainable peace and stability in the region.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set July 1 for the start of cabinet discussions on extending Israeli appropriation to settlements in the West Bank and annexing the Jordan Valley.

Israel occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem (al-Quds) during the Six-Day War in 1967. It later annexed East Jerusalem (al-Quds) in a move not recognized by the international community.

Palestinians want the West Bank as part of a future independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem al-Quds as its capital.

But Israel’s aggressive settlement expansion and annexation plans have dealt a serious blow to any prospects of peace. The last round of Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed in 2014. Among the major sticking points in those negotiations was Israel’s continued settlement expansion on Palestinian territories.

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EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told the Munich Security Conference on Sunday Iranians had asked the bloc, France, Germany, and Britain to abide by their commitments under 2015 after the US pulled out of in May 2018 and reimposed tough sanctions on Iran, Euronews reported.

He said Iran had stuck to its own side of the bargain for at least 14 months in the wake of the US exit from the deal.

The top diplomat said Iran is no longer committed to its nuclear commitments and the Europeans must accept that they have not been successful in fulfilling their obligations.

Iran signed the nuclear agreement with six world powers— namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia, and China — in 2015. The deal was also ratified in the form of a UN Security Council resolution.

Tehran remained fully compliant with the nuclear agreement, known as the JCPOA, for an entire year after the US withdrawal, waiting for the European signatories to the deal to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of American bans on the Iranian economy.

Since May 2019, Iran has progressively scaled back commitments in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the agreement in response to the US sanctions and Europe’s inability to circumvent them.

Iran says it is now producing uranium enriched beyond the 3.67 percent set by the agreement, and no longer adheres to the limit of 300 kilograms imposed on its enriched uranium stocks. It has also resumed research and development that was restricted under the deal.

In his Sunday’s speech, Borrell took a swipe at the US for its “unilateral” pullout and said it is not his job to convince the Americans to return to the deal but he tries to preserve the JCPOA through a financial mechanism that eases non-dollar trade with Iran.

Borrell admitted that his efforts have so far failed to bear fruit.

On Friday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif expressed Iran’s readiness to reverse its retaliatory measures if Europe provides “meaningful” economic benefits to the country.

“We have said that we are prepared to slow down or reverse these measures commensurate with what Europe does,” he told reporters at the 56th Munich Security Conference.

“We will decide whether what Europe does is sufficient to slow down or to reverse some steps — we have not even ruled out reversing some of the steps that we have taken,” Zarif added.

Europe set up a special trading mechanism called INSTEX to enable legitimate humanitarian trade with Iran after Washington’s unilateral withdrawal.

However, despite repeated promises by the EU to make the mechanism operational, it has yet to complete any transactions.

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“Met with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov on the margins of @MunSecConf. Discussions included #MEPP and #JCPOA – as a coordinator I remain committed to listen to all sides and keep the #NuclearDeal alive,” Borrell tweeted late on Saturday after meeting Lavrov in Munich and talking about 2015 deal of Iran.

Lavrov’s meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif also took place on the sidelines of the Munich conference on Saturday. The two foreign ministers discussed the strengthening of mutual cooperation, among other issues.

“An in-depth exchange of views also took place on a number of issues on the international agenda, including the situation in Syria and issues related to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement after the meeting.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal – France, Britain and Germany – have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.

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“We are in agreement not to go directly to a strict time limit which would oblige (us) to go to the Security Council,” Josep Borrell, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, told reporters during a visit to the Iranian capital.

In his remarks, broadcast on Tuesday, he said, “The willingness is not to start a process that goes to the end of JCPOA, but to keep it alive,” referring to the Iran deal by its formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Britain, France, and Germany formally accused Iran on Jan. 14 of violating the terms of the 2015 arms control agreement aimed at curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. In January, the trio triggered a complaint mechanism to bring back to full implementation of the deal.

The mechanism could lead to the restoration of all sanctions that were lifted by the UNSC, but, for now, the Europeans say they are keen on getting Iran back on board rather than reimpose sanctions.

Borrell, who is chair of the Iran deal, was notified in January by Paris, London, and Berlin that they had triggered the dispute mechanism, in theory starting a 15-day process to resolve issues with Iran.

China and Russia are also signatories to the deal signed in Vienna in 2015 and have expressed misgivings about the Europeans’ decision to trigger the mechanism.

All sides say they want to save the deal, which US President Donald Trump withdrew from in May 2018, reimposing economic sanctions on Iran.

Borrell said he had agreed with Berlin, London and Paris to “continuously postpone” the 15-day limit. However, he said progress depended on maintaining the presence of the UN atomic watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in Iran to monitor its nuclear activities.

Meeting Borrell on Monday, President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran is ready to cooperate with the EU on issues related to the nuclear deal.

“Whenever the other side lives up to its commitments completely, Iran is ready to return to its commitments,” Rouhani said.

Since May 2019, Iran has progressively scaled back commitments in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the agreement in response to the US sanctions and Europe’s inability to circumvent them.

Iran says it is now producing uranium enriched beyond the 3.67 percent set by the agreement, and no longer adheres to the limit of 300 kilograms imposed on its enriched uranium stocks.

It has also resumed research and development that was restricted under the deal.

Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also met Borrell on Monday. Larijani criticized EU’s “weak” stance on the US withdrawal from the deal.

Reuters and AFP contributed to this story.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – President Hassan Rouhani in a meeting with Josep Borrell, EU foreign policy chief, said Monday that Iran is still committed to its obligations under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers, despite the other signatories’ failure to uphold their end of the deal.

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In the meeting held in Tehran, Zarif and Borrell exchanged views about a host of topics, including the latest developments surrounding the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The new EU foreign policy chief has visited Tehran for the first time after taking office.

Borrell, Spain’s former foreign minister and ex-Speaker of the European Parliament, replaced Federica Mogherini as the new EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in late 2019.

On January 16, Josep Borrell met with Mohammad Javad Zarif for the first time after assuming the new post in the European Union administration.

In the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue conference in New Delhi, India, Zarif urged the European countries to meet their commitments to the JCPOA, and correct their mistakes in dealing with Iran.

The top Iranian diplomat also provided evidence, in an outspoken manner, for the mistakes and inaction on part of the three European members of the JCPOA (France, Britain, and Germany) and their failure to honor their commitments.

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Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi announced on Sunday that the new EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will visit Iran on February 3 for the first time after taking office.

According to Mousavi, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy (HR/VP) is planned to hold meetings with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and other senior Iranian officials during his trip to Tehran.

Josep Borrell, Spain’s former foreign minister and ex-Speaker of the European Parliament, replaced Federica Mogherini as the new EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in late 2019.

On January 16, Borrell met with Zarif for the first time after assuming the new post.

In the meeting, held on the sidelines of the Raisina Dialogue conference in New Delhi, India, Zarif urged the European countries to meet their commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and correct their mistakes in dealing with Iran.

The top Iranian diplomat also provided evidence, in an outspoken manner, for the mistakes and inaction on part of the three European members of the JCPOA (France, Britain, and Germany) and their failure to honor their commitments.

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“There is an agreement that more time is needed due to the complexity of the issues involved. The timeline for  dispute mechanism is therefore extended,” Borrell said in a statement.

“All JCPOA participants reconfirmed their determination to preserve the agreement which is in the interest of all,” he said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which is the official name of the Iran deal.

On January 14, Borrell was notified by Paris, London, and Berlin that they had triggered the dispute mechanism, in theory starting a 15-day process to resolve issues with Iran. However, in practice it is not clear when the 15-day period should start because Iran has not formally recognized the consultation process, officials have said.

Borrell said the Joint Commission that regulates the Iran nuclear deal will meet in February but did not give a date.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against prematurely scrapping the international nuclear deal with Iran, saying that it would be wrong to abandon an “imperfect” deal with nothing better in place.

Britain, France, and Germany – collectively known as the EU3 or E3 – launched the process last week charging Iran with failing to observe the terms of the multinational nuclear agreement, a move that could eventually see the UN Security Council reimpose international sanctions on the country.

Iran has criticized the three European nations for inaction over sanctions the United States reimposed after unilaterally withdrawing from the landmark accord in May 2018.

Iran has rejected the European move to trigger the dispute mechanism of the deal, saying it “has no legal basis.”

The 2015 nuclear deal reached with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

A year after the US pullout, Iran began to roll back its commitments to the accord in retaliation.

Iran’s latest and final step in January entailed forgoing the limit on the number of machines used to make uranium more potent.

Iran has said it will return to its nuclear obligations if the European signatories hold their part of the bargain.

“The very day you return to your commitments, we will live up to our own commitments,” President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday.

EU stance

The Wall Street Journal cited European diplomats as saying that the E3 will avoid triggering sanctions against Iran.

The US daily reported on Thursday that European diplomats don’t expect Iran to reverse the suspension of its nuclear deal commitments and that the diplomats “privately say they are prepared to tolerate those steps”.

According to the WSJ report, European diplomats are seeking to persuade Iran against taking major “new nuclear steps Iran has not taken yet” and “restrain” the expansion of its nuclear activities.

The report added that European officials are currently divided, however, on what would constitute as a restrained approach from Iran, with some proposing that Tehran’s “modest” continued expansion of its uranium production would be acceptable.

Reuters and Press TV contributed to this story.

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