The European Union’s top diplomat on Monday swept aside US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's speech on Iran, reiterating that there is no alternative to the landmark Iran nuclear deal.
"Secretary Pompeo's speech has not demonstrated how walking away from the JCPOA has made or will make the region safer from the threat of nuclear proliferation or how it puts us in a better position to influence Iran's conduct in areas outside the scope of JCPOA," Federica Mogherini, EU foreign policy chief, said in a statement carried by the official website of the European Union.
"There is no alternative to the JCPOA," she stressed.
Pompeo on Monday rolled out a "new Iran strategy" in a speech at the Heritage Foundation, a US-based conservative think tank, issuing tough rhetoric against Tehran and summoning calls for frustrated US allies.
Pompeo said that the US wanted a better deal to address its concerns on Iran.
Outlining the bid to establish an international coalition to pressure Iran, Pompeo said, "We want the support of our most important allies and partners in the region and around the globe."
"We welcome any nation which is sick and tired" of Iran's behavior, he noted, adding that the US will send teams around the globe to explain the US motives and build a global momentum.
Delicate Talks
Mogherini, however, made a strong case against Pompeo's argument, underlining that the JCPOA "was never designed to address all issues in the relationship with Iran."
“The JCPOA is the result of more than a decade of complex and delicate negotiations, based on dual track approach and therefore the best possible outcome, striking the right balance,” she said.
The European Union is and will remain committed to the continued full and effective implementation of the JCPOA as long as Iran abides by all its nuclear-related commitments, as it is doing so far, she added.
Mogherini said the deal–which has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council–belongs to the international community, adding that “the international community expects all sides to keep the commitments they made more than two years ago.”
Pompeo's speech came after US President Donald Trump’s administration withdrew from the historic agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), earlier this month despite the global outcry.
UK Censure
Even before Pompeo announced his new plan for Iran, America’s oldest ally in the West–the UK–declared that it won’t work.
Speaking in Buenos Aires on Monday, minutes before Pompeo’s speech, British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson set out why he thinks the secretary of state’s proposal for “a new jumbo Iran negotiation” is flawed. He predicted that in the end the US will come back to discussing an enhanced version of the original deal but it may take a long time.
“If you try now to fold all those issues–the ballistic missiles, Iran’s misbehaviour, Iran’s disruptive activity in the region and the nuclear question–if you try to fold all those into a giant negotiation,” Johnson said, “I don’t see that being very easy to achieve, in anything like a reasonable timetable.”
The international nuclear deal that Trump ditched had “a very clear objective” to protect the world from an Iranian nuclear bomb while in return giving the Iranians some recognizable economic benefits, he said. “The Americans have walked away from that,” Johnson said. “The prospect of a new jumbo Iran treaty is going to be very, very difficult.”
Iran has denied its nuclear program has any military purposes.
Johnson said he still believed reaching some kind of accord which includes the US is possible.
“I’m not totally pessimistic about the situation,” he said. “In the end, there is a deal to be done that gives Iran greater economic access to the West, but also constrains it. That’s what we want to work on with the Americans. They have some ideas; we have some ideas. I think in the end, we will get back to the kind of additions to the JCPOA that we initially envisaged.”
