Iran rejects the "European offer" and is moving towards a new reduction of its nuclear obligations

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that Iran will announce a new reduction in its commitments to the international community in the nuclear field, despite diplomatic efforts aimed at easing the US sanctions imposed after Tehran expressed its initial approval of the EU offer. The United States yesterday announced a new sanctions package on Iran. US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hawk, said Tehran was practicing "nuclear blackmail" in its talks with the West. , Confirmed that the President Donald Trump, would like to resolve differences with Iran diplomatically, but he stressed Washington to continue to deny Iran's oil revenues.

At a cabinet meeting yesterday, Rouhani said the declaration would focus on "the details of the third phase" of Iran's strategy to curb the commitments it started in May, according to a statement by the Iranian presidency, after Rouhani considered that diplomatic efforts by France to try to avoid Iran's new measures are unlikely to work before the deadline set by Tehran.

The statement added that Rouhani discussed in the cabinet session yesterday, the progress of negotiations with Europe, saying «for example if there are differences on 20 points, today these differences were limited to three, but we have not yet reached the final solution, and is unlikely to reach "We will take this solution throughout today (Wednesday) and tomorrow (Thursday), so we will take the third step in reducing our nuclear obligations." "The third phase of the reduction of Iran's commitments will be done as planned" in the coming days, unless the other parties take an "important" step towards his country, the Iranian president told the Shura Council, the official IRNA news agency reported. .

Rouhani did not elaborate yesterday on what would be the next step for Iran, saying only: "It seems normal, but in its content is of great importance."

"It will be the most important step taken by Iran in reducing its nuclear obligations and will have exceptional results, and will increase the speed of the work of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization and activate its activities further, that is, the Iranian action to be announced today or tomorrow will make the organization to move exceptionally quickly to reach its goals," according to the agency Erna.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying his country was ready to return to full implementation of the nuclear deal in exchange for a $ 15 billion credit line currently being negotiated with the Europeans.

But Araghchi expressed doubts that such a plan could be approved by the deadline set by Iran to ease sanctions.

"The French proposal is about this," Araghchi said, referring to the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron. Araghchi, who was in Paris on Monday with a team of Iranian negotiators, said the talks centered on the opening of a $ 15 billion credit line for four months.

The loans are worth a third of the value of Iran's export earnings from oil derivatives in 2017, and will be repaid through future oil sales, according to a French diplomatic source.

Araghchi said Iran would not return to full implementation of the nuclear deal unless it was able to export its oil and receive full revenue. Araghchi also pointed to «clear differences» between the parties to the negotiations, ruled out that «European countries can take an effective step until next Saturday», and therefore «the third phase of reducing Iran's nuclear obligations will come into force in the said date».

Iran's Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, yesterday expressed Tehran's rejection of US sanctions against Iranian space institutions. "The Americans are addicted to sanctions," Zarif was quoted as saying by the Tasnim news agency. "These sanctions are totally ineffective."

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday the United States was imposing sanctions on Iranian space agencies for their involvement in sensitive proliferation activities.

For its part, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on the Iranian space agency and the Iranian Space Research Center and the Institute of Astronautics Research, the day before yesterday, as Washington intensifies pressure on Tehran's nuclear program.

The ministry said yesterday that it had imposed sanctions on 16 entities and 10 individuals and placed 11 ships on a blacklist as part of the sanctions imposed by Washington on Iran and its collaborators.

The US Treasury said that shipping and oil trading companies and a number of oil tankers have been added to the US sanctions list for their involvement in breaching the sanctions against Iran and some of them are direct links to Tehran.

The Treasury said that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards used a network to transport oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars in the last year for the benefit of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Lebanese Hezbollah and others.

In the same context, said Brian Hook, yesterday, that his country will not provide any exemptions from the sanctions in a French proposal to provide a line of credit worth 15 billion dollars to Iran.

"We imposed sanctions yesterday," Hawk said. There are more sanctions in the way. "We cannot provide further clarification on our commitment to our campaign to exert maximum pressure (on Iran) and we are not looking for any exceptions or exemptions."

This comes at a time when three European countries - France, Germany and Britain - are discussing with Tehran ways to maintain this international agreement, reached in Vienna in 2015, and is threatened after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States in May 2018, and re-imposed a series of Economic sanctions on Iran.

The effort is led by French President Emmanuel Macron, who is trying to persuade the United States to exempt Iran from some of its tough sanctions.

In this context, the European Union urged Iran yesterday to refrain from steps that may undermine the agreement signed between the international community and Tehran on its nuclear activities in 2015, welcoming any diplomatic efforts to find a way out of the crisis with Tehran and reduce tension in the Strait of Hormuz.

One European spokesman responded to a French initiative to provide Iran with a $ 15 billion credit line with conditions attached in a bid to salvage the deal.

The spokesman, according to (AKI) Italian news agency, yesterday, in this regard, that «it is up to the actors concerned to provide more details on the ongoing discussions».

However, according to the spokesman, the EU remains deeply concerned about Iran's violations of its obligations, particularly with regard to the quantities and percentages of uranium enrichment that do not comply with the text of the agreement.

Earlier, EU High Representative for Security and Foreign Policy Federica Mogherini confirmed that any initiatives by the European countries involved in the agreement (France, Britain, Germany) should be integrated with the EU's efforts to save the agreement. Mogherini referred to the special mechanism to avoid the effects of US sanctions and allow trade to resume with Iran.

While Brussels insists that the mechanism, although slow to launch, will contribute to saving the agreement, Tehran sees in return that it is ineffective, as it will not allow it to sell its oil freely as it wants.