China envoy says Iran deal dispute resolution not triggered

PARIS (Reuters) - European parties to the Iran nuclear deal did not trigger a mechanism that could lead to the renewal of U.N. sanctions at talks in Vienna on Friday, China's envoy said.

"All countries need to refrain from taking actions that further complicate the situation," Fu Cong, director general of the Department of Arms Control of the Chinese Foreign Ministry told reporters after the talks. "In our view there is an element of automaticity into this and we can't be sure that countries can keep this process under control. It could aggravate tensions."

He said the European powers had not indicated whether they would trigger the mechanism, but all parties had urged Iran to return to full compliance to the 2015 accord after several breaches over the last few months.

(Reporting by Francois Murphy and John Irish; Editing by Catherine Evans)