European Union foreign ministers are seeking to protect the bloc's strategic and economic interests in Iran in the wake of the US withdrawal from the international nuclear deal.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Monday that "nobody believes it is going to be an easy exercise but we are determined to do it," AP reported.
"Today on the agenda of foreign ministers we have first and foremost our work to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran. We have been acting already at the EU level to put in place some measures to make sure that the nuclear agreement is preserved and the economic investments from the European side, but also from other sides in the world are protected," Mogherini told reporters ahead of the meeting.
For the first time since the deal came into force, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany met without the US in Vienna on Friday to flesh out a strategy to save the 2015 nuclear deal by keeping oil and investment flowing after the United States pulled out of the agreement earlier this month.
Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which polices the accord, briefed participants before the meeting, according to Reuters.
She said she will update the ministers on the "good joint committee meeting we had last Friday in Vienna, where the remaining countries without the United States met at the level of deputy ministers, together also with the director general of the IAEA that certified for the 11th time that Iran is fully compliant with all its nuclear related commitments."
She stressed that "EU decisions are taken by Europeans, are not exposed to decisions taken elsewhere, and that we have the instruments to accompany and protect our economic investments, especially when they match our security interests."
The US pulled out of the pact earlier this month, and wants to impose tough sanctions on Iran, while European powers and Tehran say they are committed to keep working together to save the deal.
Mogherini also stressed that the latest report of the International Atomic Energy Agency says that Iran continues to stay below the maximum level to which it can enrich uranium and appears to be fulfilling other obligations.
EU leaders have united behind the accord, with Brussels working on measures including banning EU-based firms from complying with reimposed US sanctions and urging governments to make money transfers to Iran's central bank to avoid fines. Russia and China have also vowed to maintain trade with Iran.
