A senior official said EU officials' contradictory remarks on the 2015 nuclear agreement after US withdrawal points to a "duplicitous" side that cannot be trusted. Ali Akbar Velayati said Sunday that while some EU officials claim to be committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the bloc is refusing to give guarantees and stand against the US pressure tactics, ISNA reported.
"Some European officials say they are not supposed to stand up to America and offer guarantees," said Velayati who is a senior adviser for international affairs to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
"These contradictions in statements of European officials raise doubts. We hope our authorities could get the necessary guarantees in their negotiations" with the Europeans, he said, adding "A duplicitous side, which makes contradictory remarks, cannot be trusted." Velayati referred to the French oil giant Total quitting Iran, saying the company is a case in point after it announced that it was suspending a $2 billion project in Iran.
Discussion for New Deal
In related news, diplomats from Europe, China and Russia are discussing a new accord to offer Iran financial aid to curb its ballistic missile development and alleged meddling in the region, in the hope of salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal, a German newspaper reported on Sunday, Reuters reported.
The officials will meet in Vienna in the coming week under the leadership of senior European Union diplomat Helga Schmid to discuss next steps after the May 8 decision by US President Donald Trump to pull out of the nuclear agreement, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper said, citing senior EU sources.
Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China would participate in the meeting, but the United States would not, it said. It was not immediately clear if Iran would take part. Iran has repeatedly said that it will not renegotiate the terms of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Missile Program
Under the deal, Iran agreed to curb its nuclear program in return for the lifting of western sanctions. One of the main complaints of the Trump administration was that the accord did not cover Iran’s missile program. Tehran says it needs its missiles–which are of defensive nature–as it lives in a volatile region that has seen many wars that continue to this day.
Concluding a new agreement that can maintain the nuclear provisions and curb ballistic missile development and Tehran’s role in the region could help convince Trump to lift sanctions against Iran, the paper said. “We have to get away from the name ‘Vienna nuclear agreement’ and add in a few additional elements. Only that will convince President Trump to agree and lift sanctions again,” the paper quoted a senior EU diplomat as saying.
No immediate comment was available from the German Foreign Ministry. The EU’s energy chief sought to reassure Iran on Saturday that the 28-member bloc remained committed to salvaging the nuclear deal, and strengthening trade with Tehran.
Officials from the EU, Germany and other countries that remain committed to the deal have said it would be disastrous if EU efforts fail to preserve it. Iran has struggled to achieve financial benefits from the deal, partly because remaining unilateral US sanctions deterred major western investors from doing business with Tehran.
The officials are looking for a new approach given an understanding that it would be difficult for European firms to work around new US sanctions, the newspaper reported.
