German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday held a telephone call with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in which she voiced her "concern" over Tehran's non-compliance with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear pact, her spokesman said.

She also stressed the "high interest'' that Germany and the other remaining signatories to the JCPOA have in preserving the deal, her office said in a statement.

The earlier agreement was aimed at Iran providing safeguards that it would not construct an atomic bomb. This includes allowing nuclear inspections in exchange for a gradual easing of international sanctions.

During the call, Merkel "expressed her concern that Iran continues to fail to meet its obligations under the nuclear agreement," spokesman Steffen Seibert said in a statement.

The chancellor also said that "now was the time for positive signals that create trust and increase the chances of a diplomatic solution", he added.

Salvaging diplomacy

Merkel's call came on the eve of talks between three European countries and the United States on how to salvage the strained agreement.

On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will host his German and British counterparts in Paris, with America's new top diplomat Antony Blinken joining via videoconference, the French foreign ministry said.

The three European signatories to the deal want to revive the agreement that former US president Donald Trump walked away from in 2018.

Back in Washington, president Joe Biden has said he will try to rejoin the deal, but insisted that first Tehran must reverse its nuclear steps, creating something of a contest of wills between the nations.

Iran's Khamenei demands 'action'

Following reports of Merkel's phone call, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, responded with counterdemands of "action, not words" from the United States if it really wants to revive the agreement.

"We have heard many nice words and promises which in practice have been broken and opposite actions have been taken," Khamenei said in a televised speech Wednesday.

"Words and promises are no good. This time (we want) only action from the other side, and we will also act," he said, strengthening demands that the US must lift all sanctions if it wants Iran to live up to its prior commitments.

Iran has set a deadline of next week for Biden to begin reversing sanctions imposed by former president Trump, or it will ban short-notice nuclear inspections.

Head UN nuclear inspector plans trip to Iran

In the hopes of finding a "mutually agreeable solution," the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Director General Rafael Grossi will visit Tehran on Saturday for discussions with senior Iranian officials.

Grossi, who heads the UN-backed nuclear watchdog group, seeks to foster an agreement allowing the continuation of the agency's inspections and verification activities in the country, the organization said Wednesday.

Competing needs

Tehran has been using its violations of the nuclear deal to increase pressure on the JCPOA's remaining signatories, France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China, to provide additional incentives to Iran to offset the crippling American sanctions re-imposed after the US pulled out of the agreement in 2018.

The ultimate goal of the deal remains to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, something Tehran insists it does not want to do.

However, Iran has said it will stop some of the inspections next week if the West doesn't implement its own commitments.

Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, said he had sent a letter to the agency detailing the planned inspection restrictions which will take effect on Feb. 23.

He said Iran would cease to adhere to the so-called Additional Protocol, an arrangement that provides the IAEA broad access and information regarding Iran's nuclear program, including both declared and undeclared facilities.

Following the killing of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist last fall, Iran's parliament passed a law that vowed to restrict access of UN watchdog inspectors if the sanctions imposed on its oil and banking sectors are not lifted. 

Global concerns

Analysts say that only a small window of opportunity remains to save the deal and that world powers will have to act fast.

The West is concerned that Iran is moving faster towards having the "breakout" capacity for building atomic weapons.

New fears were sparked last week following warnings from the UN nuclear watchdog that Iran had started producing uranium metal in a new violation of the JCPOA accord.

Upcoming Iranian presidential elections in June add another risk to forging a lasting deal.

mb/aw (AP, AFP, Reuters)