France’s idea to trigger a provision in the nuclear deal that could result in UN-imposed sanctions against Iran has no merit, Tehran argued, noting that it breached the accord only after Washington's exit from the agreement.

“Iran's scaling back of its nuclear commitments was implementation of its legal rights to react to America's illegal and unilateral exit of the deal and the European parties’ failure to fulfill their obligations,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Thursday.

Under these circumstances... such remarks by the French official are irresponsible and not constructive.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday that France should consider implementing a dispute resolution clause that could mandate UN sanctions on Iran for putting “dents” in the 2015 deal.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the pact last year. Since then, Washington has imposed increasingly harsh sanctions on Tehran. European signatories have worked to preserve the deal, which places restrictions on Iran’s uranium enrichment program in exchange for sanctions relief. However, Europe has so far failed. Britain, France and Germany have sought to salvage the pact, under which Iran undertook to curtail its uranium enrichment program in return for relief from crippling sanctions. However, Europe has so far been reluctant to bypass US sanctions.

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