Nuclear Deal Signatories Will Meet on Sep. 24 at UN

Participants in the nuclear deal with Iran (minus the US) will hold a ministerial meeting on September 24 on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.

European Union foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will also attend the meeting, Tass reported.

The conferees will discuss ways to preserve the nuclear deal after the  unilateral US withdrawal and the reintroduction of US sanctions against Iran.

On May 8, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal signed between Iran and world powers.

  EU Cannot Save the Deal

Separately, Javier Solana, a former NATO secretary general and early advocate of the historic deal, said Europe will have no choice but to comply with US sanctions on Iran.

Solana, who was a long-time promoter of diplomacy with Iran as the European Union’s foreign envoy, said the US international financial clout means EU efforts to get around sanctions are doomed.

“I wish I could say yes,” Solana said when asked if European moves to circumvent sanctions will succeed. Rather, the US treasury’s ability to sanction transactions carried out in dollars effectively kills those plans, he said in an interview in Madrid, Bloomberg reported on Thursday.

“The power of the US today is not military, it’s the dollar,” said Solana, 76, who is now chairman of the Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics at ESADE business school in Madrid. “They squeeze you out.”

France and Germany are exploring ways to sidestep the penalties, with French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire last month referring to work on “an independent European or Franco-German financing tool” to avoid falling foul of US measures.

Pressure is growing on Europe to act to save the accord, with US sanctions against Iran’s oil industry set to come in from Nov. 4 and Iran telling the parties to the nuclear deal to come up with ways to offset the economic impact by then.

Solana pointed to French oil major Total’s decision to withdraw from the South Pars gas field after failing to secure an exemption from sanctions as evidence of US power to enforce extra-territorial measures.

“You have to cut off your relationship with the US because they don’t allow your dollars to go through,” he said.

Total made a real effort to be in Iran after the lifting of sanctions, said Solana. “If Total is leaving, imagine the smaller players.”