World powers and Iran suspended their efforts to revive the 2015 nuclear accord, reigniting a crisis that’s set to roil already surging oil markets and could plunge the energy-exporting Persian Gulf into a new cycle of violence.
A pause in the Vienna talks was required due to “external factors,” European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Twitter, without elaborating. Borrell said the sides had come very close to agreement but didn’t say when or if the negotiations would be able to resume.
The rupture follows escalating tensions between the Kremlin and the White House. Russia warned on Saturday that it wanted U.S. guarantees that sanctions imposed over Ukraine wouldn’t affect its planned partnership with Iran.
Oil prices extended gains on the break in negotiations as traders discarded cautious expectations that the U.S. would eventually lift its sanctions on Iran’s economy and ease an effective blockade on the OPEC member’s oil exports.
U.S. and European officials had warned for weeks that the window for a deal was closing, urging an agreement on a handful of outstanding issues.
The U.S. and its European and regional allies must now decide how they respond if Iran continues to advance a nuclear program that has already enriched uranium to just below the level needed for atomic weapons.
Absent the deal, Iran’s nuclear work has been racing ahead, with its engineers threatening to make the original accord obsolete because of their new advances.
International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors reported last week that Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60% purity rose more than fourth fifths in the last three months.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said the pause wasn’t necessarily the end of the road, and could provide momentum to resolve the outstanding issues.
