Tehran tells EU ‘to speed up efforts’ to save nuclear deal

Iran has said that Europe should accelerate its efforts to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers that Washington abandoned in May. “Europeans and other signatories of the deal [China and Russia] have been trying to save the deal… but the process has been slow. It should be accelerated,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Monday. “Iran relies mainly on its own capabilities to overcome America’s new sanctions.” European states have been scrambling to ensure Iran gets enough economic benefits to persuade it to stay in the deal since the US withdrew from the agreement, Reuters said. The EU has taken steps to counter the renewed US sanctions.