EU Welcomes Parliamentary Interaction to Promote Mutual Understanding

The European Parliament called for closer contact with its Iranian counterpart to build stronger mutual understanding, a senior European lawmaker said.

"We welcome stepped-up talks between Iran and Europe's parliaments because we consider these consultations as a way to promote mutual understanding," David McAllister, chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee said in a meeting with Chairman of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaeddin Boroujerdi in Tehran on Wednesday.

"Iran-Europe cooperation offers mutual benefits that the two sides should help to extract," he was quoted as saying by IRNA.

McAllister reiterated his side's backing for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which is facing a test of robustness by the hawkish approach of US President Donald Trump.

"Europe views the JCPOA as a document beneficial to global peace and stability and supports the full implementation of its provisions by all parties."

JCPOA stands for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the official title of the historic accord.

It was agreed between Tehran and P5+1 (the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany) to end over a decade of nuclear sanctions against Tehran in return for scaling down its nuclear program.

The UN-endorsed accord, however, has been severely attacked by Trump, who has branded it "the worst deal ever negotiated."

Trump has vowed to stop waiving US sanctions unless the Europeans agreed to strengthen the deal's terms by consenting to a side agreement that would effectively eliminate provisions that allow Iran to gradually resume some advanced atomic work.

Iran has denied western allegations that it has been seeking a nuclear warhead and insists that its nuclear program has always pursued civilian purposes.

Trump also wants tighter restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program.

Iran has rejected Trump's demand for a renegotiation of the JCPOA and for new constraints on its missile and regional activities.

London, Paris, and Berlin share Trump's non-nuclear concerns about Iran and have expressed readiness to cooperate with him to address them.

But they have rejected Trump's call for revisiting the deal, arguing that it is working and Tehran's compliance has been fully verified by the UN nuclear agency, the JCPOA's oversight body.

Boroujerdi, for his part, thanked Europe for its defense of the action plan in the face of Trump's aggressive attempts and called for expansion of bilateral trade.