Al-Monitor | Laura Rozen: The United Kingdom, France and Germany announced today that they are triggering a dispute resolution mechanism (DRM) in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal in response to steps by Iran to reduce its compliance with the accord. Iran's move comes in protest of the US re-imposition of crippling economic sanctions.

Though the three European parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) said they are triggering the DRM in sincere hope of finding a way to preserve the agreement and stressed that they are not joining the Donald Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran, analysts warned the step could ultimately hasten the deal’s demise. They said it risks Iran’s eventual decision to curtail extensive monitoring and verification of its nuclear program by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and adherence to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

“Iran’s actions are inconsistent with the provisions of the nuclear agreement and have increasingly severe and non-reversible proliferation implications,” the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France and Germany said in the joint statement. “We have therefore been left with no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPOA and to refer this matter to the Joint Commission under the Dispute Resolution Mechanism.”

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