The Guardian:

Tensions in the Middle East could pose an existential threat unless the Iran nuclear deal is maintained, Jeremy Hunt will tell EU foreign ministers in his starkest warning since the regional crisis escalated two months ago.

Arriving in Brussels on Monday, the UK foreign secretary said the agreement “isn’t dead yet”, but warned that if Tehran acquired nuclear weapons, other countries in the region would too, leading to a “very toxic and dangerous situation”.

His intervention is part of a European effort to preserve the landmark deal, which was abandoned unilaterally by the US a year ago, leading to an accelerating reciprocal withdrawal by Iran.

“Iran is still a good year away from developing a nuclear weapon,” Hunt said. “We think there is still some closing but small window to keep the deal alive.”

He said the EU was prepared to launch “a proper joint investigation” into Iranian breaches of the deal, following Tehran’s recent announcements that it would start enriching uranium beyond agreed limits. “What we are looking for is to give Iran a way out of this so that they can get back into compliance with the nuclear deal,” he said.

The foreign secretary, who is trailing Boris Johnson in the race to become UK prime minister, downplayed a rift with the US over policy on Iran. Those differences were manifest in leaked cables of the outgoing British ambassador to Washington, Sir Kim Darroch, who wrote that the US president, Donald Trump, scuppered the deal to spite his predecessor, Barack Obama, in an act of “diplomatic vandalism”.
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“We have different views as to how we keep the region denuclearised, but we have very open channels of communication on that,” Hunt said.

Hunt has tried to de-escalate the situation by saying an Iranian-owned oil tanker seized by the British off Gibraltar 10 days ago might be released if Tehran promised the ship’s owners would abandon plans to unload its oil in Syria. The EU has imposed a ban on oil sales to Damascus.

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