Pompeo says Europeans did nothing to counter Iran missiles

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Europeans on Thursday of having done nothing to counter Iran’s programme to develop ballistic missiles.

"The Europeans have told us ... that they are prepared to engage on missiles, and for three years did nothing," Pompeo told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Likewise, he said, European governments haven’t done anything in support of the US campaign labelling Iran the world’s leading sponsor of terror.

"They talked about agreeing to things on terror," Pompeo said, but did nothing. President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that the United States was withdrawing from the Iran nuclear accord, calling its requirements on Tehran too weak.

Until that point the European parties to the accord, France, Germany and Britain, had negotiated with the Trump administration to find a solution to three primary US concerns: the Iran deal’s 2025 sunset provisions on certain prohibited activities; Iran’s ballistic missile programme; and Iran’s activities in other countries around the Middle East, including Syria and Yemen, which Washington considers "destabilising".

According to European diplomats and some US officials, those talks had made significant progress and were close to completion when Trump announced he would pull out from the Iran nuclear deal. Pompeo however rejected that view.

"We were never able to get there" in talks with the Europeans, he told the Senate panel. "There was no evidence that the Europeans had any intention of actually agreeing to those three provisions."

Since then the other signatories -- the three Europeans, the European Union, Russia and China -- have sought to keep the Iran deal alive.

Pompeo earlier this week laid out 12 points that need to be addressed for a "new agreement" that covers a much broader range of issues. However the other parties, including Iran, have all criticized the US approach.

Meanwhile, Iran has stayed within the main curbs on its nuclear activity imposed by its deal with major powers despite the US pullout from the pact, but could be quicker to provide extra access to inspectors, the UN atomic watchdog indicated on Thursday.

In its first such report since President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal on May 8, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran had complied with limits on the level to which it can enrich uranium, its stock of enriched uranium and other items. It did, however, rebuke Iran for dragging its feet over so-called "complementary access" inspections under the IAEA’s Additional Protocol, which Iran is implementing under the deal.

"The Agency ... has conducted complementary accesses under the Additional Protocol to all the sites and locations in Iran which it needed to visit," the IAEA said in a confidential report that was sent to member states and seen by Reuters.

"Timely and proactive cooperation by Iran in providing such access would facilitate implementation of the Additional Protocol and enhance confidence," it said. The report came with France, Britain and Germany scrambling to salvage the deal’s core bargain of sanctions relief in exchange for restrictions on nuclear fuel production.

Trump is reimposing US sanctions against Tehran, threatening to scupper the deal and prompt Iranian retaliation. Trump sees various "flaws" in the deal, including that many of its restrictions lapse over time and that it does not address Iran’s ballistic missile programme or its role in regional conflicts like the wars in Syria and Yemen.

Some Western companies like French oil giant Total have already said they may have to quit Iran because of the US move. Senior officials from the other countries that signed the deal - France, Britain, Germany, Russia, China and Iran - are meeting in Vienna on Friday to discuss next steps.