Iran tells Europe to step up efforts to save nuclear deal

Beirut/Berlin, May 22 

Iran poured scorn on threatened US sanctions on Tuesday and told European powers to step up and salvage its international nuclear deal -- though Germany signalled there was only so much it could do to fend off Washington’s economic clout.

Senior Iranian military and political figures queued up to issue defiant statements a day after Washington threatened “the strongest sanctions in history” if Iran failed to make a series of sweeping changes.

Two weeks on from US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the nuclear pact, his administration told Iran to drop its nuclear programme and pull out of the Syrian civil war among other demands, setting Washington and Tehran further on a course of confrontation.

“The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State and anyone who backs them,” Ismail Kowsari, a senior commander with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

The 2015 nuclear agreement, worked out by the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Russia, China and Iran, lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its atomic programme. Trump called it the worst deal ever negotiated but European powers see it as the best chance of stopping Iran developing a nuclear bomb.

After Trump pulled out, the other signatories said they would try to salvage the deal and keep Iran’s oil trade and investment flowing. But European companies say they are worried about getting caught up in the new US sanctions, given the extent of Washington’s global reach, and some have already started pulling out.

The head of Iran’s National Security and Foreign Policy committee in parliament said that the only way to salvage the nuclear deal would be for the European signatories to stand up to the 

United States.

“Today they must show their strength in the face of American pressure,” Alaeddin Borujerdi said, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas on Monday told reporters in Argentina he would travel on from there to Washington to discuss the nuclear deal with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. He gave no date for his meeting. Germany’s economy minister earlier told a newspaper the Berlin government would help German firms with business in Iran where it could, but could not entirely shield them from the US decision to quit the Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions.

Asked how the German government could assist German firms feeling nervous in the wake of the US decision, Peter Altmaier told the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper that Berlin would help them assess the situation and developments while also urging the US to grant exemptions and deadline extensions. — Reuters

EU energy chief courts Tehran

• Europe’s energy chief will seek to reassure Iran’s top ministers on Saturday that the European Union wants to keep trade open despite the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal
• Miguel Arias Canete, European commissioner for energy and climate, will meet with five top Iranian ministers over two days, including the Islamic Republic’s nuclear chief, oil minister and foreign minister
• EU leaders have united behind the 2015 accord, with Brussels considering banning EU-based firms from complying with the sanctions that President Trump has reimposed and urging governments to make money transfers to Iran’s central bank to avoid fines
• The mission led by Canete is a symbolic gesture to urge Iran’s leadership to stick to the nuclear deal and shore up support for the relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani against hardliners looking to constrain his ability to open up to the West