AP � Austria�s foreign minister said Wednesday that he will travel to Tehran this weekend amid efforts by European countries to keep alive Iran�s nuclear agreement with world powers.

Alexander Schallenberg said after meeting his German counterpart in Berlin that he will be taking a �European message� to Tehran on Saturday and Sunday after also meeting the European Union�s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, this week.

Tensions have been escalating steadily since 2018, when President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of Tehran�s nuclear deal with world powers. The Trump administration reimposed crippling sanctions on Iran as part of its �maximum pressure campaign� on the Islamic republic.

Iran since has begun breaking terms of the 2015 deal limiting its enrichment of uranium.

The remaining signatories � the European trio of Germany, France and Britain, plus Russia and China � have been trying to keep the deal afloat. While Austria is not part of the agreement, the deal was negotiated in large part in Vienna.

Europeans agree that �we must contribute everything to the situation being de-escalated,� German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said. He stressed that �the �maximum pressure� strategy is not promising in our view, but we have increased the pressure on Iran,� and welcomed Schallenberg�s trip.

The Europeans have invoked a dispute resolution mechanism designed to resolve issues with the deal or refer them to the U.N. Security Council.

Schallenberg said that �it is also important ... to repeat our points � it�s not enough to have said them once.�