Iran could withhold security commitments if European states invoke a U.N. mechanism to reimpose international sanctions on the Islamic Republic, a member of Iran's parliamentary national security commission said on Monday, according to Borna news.
"We have many tools at our disposal. We can withhold our commitment to security in the region, Persian Gulf and Hormuz Strait as well as other maritime areas," Abbas Moqtadaei said regarding the possible imposition of international sanctions if talks fail to make progress toward a deal on the Iranian nuclear program.
He was speaking ahead of a meeting on Friday between the Iranians and British, French and German diplomats in Istanbul. The three European states, known as E3, have said they would restore international sanctions on Iran by the end of August if the country did not enter productive talks on its nuclear program with Western powers, notably the United States.
E3 countries and Iran have been holding talks in the past three months, at the same time the Iranians were in indirect talks with the United States. Israel's attack on Iran in June led to the suspension of such talks.
"Europe is not in a position to endanger itself in the... Hormuz Strait, when it is itself in political, economic and cultural conflicts with Russia, China and even the United States," Moqtadaei said in an interview with Iran's semi-official Borna news agency.
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Last week, Iran's foreign ministry spokesperson said Tehran would react to the three European states if they invoked the UN snapback mechanism, which expires on October 18. In a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday that the E3 lack the legal standing to invoke the mechanism, arguing that their stance on Israeli and U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities last month made them no longer participants in the 2015 nuclear deal to which the snapback mechanism is linked.
The three European countries, along with China and Russia, are the remaining parties to the nuclear pact, from which the U.S. withdrew in 2018, that lifted sanctions on Iran in return for restrictions on its nuclear programme. In the past, Iran has used the threat of disrupting maritime transit in the Strait of Hormuz or no longer stopping Europe-bound drug trafficking as a means to push back against Western pressures on its nuclear program.