The EU is "determined to preserve" the Iran nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal, the bloc's diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini said Friday.
“And yet, it is exactly when things do not go well, that rationality, calm, predictability, respect, dialogue are most needed to avoid the worst case scenarios; to prevent conflicts to spiral out of control; to contain tensions; to preserve what is still working and delivering–as we are determined to do with the Iran nuclear deal,” she said, official website of the European Union reported.
Mogherini made the remarks addressing the State of the Union conference organized by the European University Institute in Florence, Italy.
“Our determination is to keep this agreement in place. Obviously we need the only country that can unilaterally destroy this agreement to stay committed, which is Iran,” she noted.
“This deal is not a bilateral treaty. It's a UN Security Council Resolution and it belongs to the entire world,” she added.
“I know that this is not the mood of our times. It seems that screaming, shouting, insulting and bullying, systematically destroying and dismantling everything that is already in place, is the mood of our times. While the secret of change–and we need change–is to put all energies not in destroying the old, but rather in building the new,” the EU top diplomat said.
US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that Washington would pull out of the international nuclear agreement and reinstate nuclear sanctions on Iran.
This is while most world powers including Russia, China, and European Union have repeatedly stressed that keeping the deal is in the interest of world peace and security.
Mogherini will host a meeting with E3 Foreign Ministers (Germany, France, UK) on Tuesday in Brussels. This EU/E3 meeting will then be followed by a meeting of that same group with the Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Germany Getting Tough With US
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told the German magazine Spiegel the US has demonstrated "very little willingness to take the arguments of its allies seriously," Sputnik reported.
"The transformation which the US is undergoing has already taken hold of transatlantic ties," Maas said, adding that Berlin was aware of the ongoing change "before Tuesday night's disappointment."
According to Maas, Germany will pursue a tougher policy toward the United States when it comes to defending Berlin's interests.
"We are prepared to talk, negotiate and also fight for our interests where necessary," the diplomat told the magazine. "This goes for all levels, not just for the White House."
Diplomats Fume
Meanwhile, European diplomats in Tehran fumed that Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal, saying it could undermine years of patient work to restore commercial and diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic.
"Since the signing of the JCPOA (nuclear deal), we have gone from an atmosphere like a gold rush, to one of utter depression," said a Western trade diplomat on condition of anonymity, AFP reported.
"We are waiting now for how the decision-makers in the European Union will react. If the EU leans towards accommodating the US, all the progress we have made since 2015 will be lost."
But she emphasized that many of the problems began long before Trump's move last Tuesday.
"Decisions on the Iranian side took longer than expected, international banks were reluctant to work with Iran and the recent decline in the value of (Iran's currency) made international business even more difficult," she said.
Putin and Amano to Discuss Iran
Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi on Monday to discuss the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, a Kremlin aide said Friday, Reuters reported.
Yuri Ushakov added that Moscow was working closely with Tehran to prevent it from leaving the deal, which it sees as vital for global stability.
“We really hope this won’t happen. Honestly, we are working with Iran in favor of it not leaving,” Ushakov said.
