"A year before the bomb is produced." Iran wants action and Europe is moving to save the nuclear deal

European Union foreign ministers on Monday discussed alternative financial means to salvage a nuclear deal with Iran, while Tehran demanded real support in the face of US sanctions, saying only words were insufficient.

EU foreign policy commissioner Federica Mugherini said Iran had not violated the nuclear deal in a compromising way and that its signatory states did not see Tehran's latest moves calling for a mechanism to resolve conflicts over the implementation of the agreement.

Mugherini's speech followed a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday to discuss the acceleration of the launch of the financial mechanism and coordination of efforts to save the nuclear deal.

"We will continue to work within the framework of this agreement. I have come back from the region and I have seen that everyone stresses the need for the agreement to remain fully implemented and that Iran will abide by it," Mugherini said.

A glimmer of hope
The meeting reflected that the Europeans still have a hope of saving the nuclear deal, but agree that they do not have enough time to do the job.

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said Iran still had at least one year to build a nuclear bomb.

The European Union does not have options to lift pressure on the Iranian economy, but they can implement the INSTEX mechanism, which allows commercial exchanges with Iran in some products, but does not include oil products.

In statements ahead of the meeting, the ministers renewed their stand to maintain the agreement, demanding Tehran to waive the decision to reduce its commitments.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Laudrian said Europe must remain united in an attempt to preserve the Iranian nuclear deal, calling on Tehran to reverse its decision not to abide by some of its provisions.

Ludran said Iran's decision to reduce its commitment to the agreement, which the United States withdrew from, was a bad reaction to a bad decision.

French initiative
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macaron said he would speak to Iranian President Hassan Rowhani, Russian President Vladimir Putin and American Donald Trump this week as part of a French initiative to avoid escalation of tension in the Middle East.

At a news conference with his Serbian counterpart in Belgrade, Macron said the momentum achieved in the last few weeks had prevented the worst from happening and without excessive reactions from the Iranian side.

For his part, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt called for a truce with Iran.

Genuine support
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the Europeans' desire to maintain the agreement was not enough.

Zarif called on the Europeans to provide real support for Iran, stressing that this has not happened so far.

For his part, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said that any demand that Iran to back down from its decision to reduce its commitments without making any real guarantees to stop the sanctions is inconsistent with logic and not acceptable.

In response to the recent statement by the European countries signatories to the nuclear agreement, Moussaoui said that the form and content of Tehran's commitment to the terms of the agreement is entirely dependent on the commitment of the other parties.

He said that the European countries must take practical and effective measures to implement the nuclear agreement, and not expect Iran to continue to implement the agreement on its own and free of charge.

A spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization said on Monday that Tehran could "return to the status quo" before the July 2015 agreement on its nuclear program.

"If the Europeans and the Americans do not want to meet their commitments, we also - through the reduction of our commitments - will return to what it was four years ago," Bahruz Kamalundi said in a statement quoted by the official IRNA news agency.