Saving Iran’s nuclear deal is absolutely essential because its complete collapse would cause security issues in the Middle East, which are certain to reverberate across the world, a former Iranian diplomat said.
The nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, reached between Iran and the six world powers in 2015, has been on shaky ground since the United States quit the same in May and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.
Iran and other parties have refused to abandon the accord and are doing all in their power to keep it alive, minus the US.
The European Union has been leading the campaign to rescue the deal proposing various mechanisms to safeguard Iran’s interests in the face of US sanctions, although the pace of their development has been slow.
Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, stressed that these mechanisms need to be implemented as quickly as possible before JCPOA’s total demise and its consequent security challenges.
“If the new mechanisms [of European cooperation with Iran] are not realized, there would be problems with [myriad] losses: first in the Middle East and Europe, and then in the world,” he said.
Kharrazi, who is also a former foreign minister, made the statement in an address to the 22nd European Forum in the Austrian capital Vienna titled “The EU as a leading actor for stability, security and defense in Europe,” whose text was published on SCFR’s official website.
Given the theme of the forum, Kharrazi drew attention to the security issues “the death of JCPOA could cause”.
“If the United States succeeds in completely eliminating the nuclear deal, it will impose uncertainty on the region. Naturally, this instability will not be limited to Iran, but would also affect the countries around Iran and this will create unpredictable security risks for Europe,” he said, warning that Iran’s exit from the deal would have dangerous repercussions.
“Iran is an island of stability in this turbulent region and instability in Iran would lead to instability in the region around it.”
US Confrontation With EU
The current US government, he stressed, is opposed to economic globalization and would therefore fight any structure advocating this, including the EU. In line with this policy, the US is seeking to reach a bilateral agreement with Iran in place of the multinational JCPOA.
“Naturally, they are pursuing political and economic interests in bilateral agreements” and other countries’ considerations could be overlooked, he said.
According to Kharrazi, Europe’s interests and security today are meaningless or take the lowest priority in the eyes of American leaders.
“Therefore, events taking place in the Middle East and future consequences, which will undoubtedly have security implications for Europe as well, will have no impact on America, but Washington will take advantage of it for its own benefit,” he said.
The former foreign minister added that as a powerful country pursuing unilateralism, the US is against any partnership to resolve global and regional issues, a perfect example of which was JCPOA.
“In this regard, one of the goals of the United States is the weakening of the European Union,” he said.
For the American administration that pursues “countless monopolistic material benefits” from instability in the Middle East, “it is not important how much damage is inflicted on the people and the economies of the region and the security of its surroundings, including Europe”.
Considering the abovementioned facts as well as Iran’s stabilizing role in the fight against terrorism, “the cooperation of Iran and Europe in this sensitive region is urgent and any delay in this respect would be inexcusable”, Kharrazi concluded.
