EU Satisfied With Prospects of US Return to JCPOA

Iran’s former ambassador to France said it seems that Europeans are pleased with the likely US return to the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under the same format.
Abolqasem Delfi also told IRNA in a recent interview that since negotiations between Iran and the three European countries began within the framework of nuclear talks and continued with the P5+1 format (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) and then with P4+1 (after the US withdrawal), the European initial claim was that their major objective was to limit the proliferation of nuclear weapons and block the path of Iran’s access to nuclear bombs, despite Tehran’s assurances that it will never pursue nuclear arms. 
JCPOA is the fruit of 12 years of intensive talks, but its incomplete implementation and the US unilateral pullout from it based on US President Donald Trump’s order almost ruined the results of all those talks, the former diplomat said.
Delfi said the US exit was a severe blow to JCPOA and caused numerous challenges for Europeans in terms of their transatlantic cooperation and non-proliferation goals.
He said that after the US withdrawal from the nuclear accord, the Europeans tried to both safeguard the P4+1 format of engagement and stay in JCPOA.
They initially claimed that they will remunerate for the US exit and even accepted some commitments beyond JCPOA, but they neither remained faithful to those new commitments nor did they live up to their former commitments to the deal, so their disloyalty widened the gap between Iran and the EU.
The former diplomat underlined that US threats against European countries and companies were so strong that no companies dared to cooperate with Iran, and this led to great losses for the Europeans that had initially assumed they will benefit from the large Iranian markets, while their access to the markets actually decreased after the US exit. 

Revived Hopes 

Delfi noted that before the US election in November, the Europeans’ maximum efforts were focused on blocking the path for the full collapse of JCPOA, but the victory of President-elect Joe Biden in the election and Trump’s defeat strengthened hopes for both safeguarding JCPOA and further expanding it to include other objectives stated by EU and the US. 
Biden has reiterated his intention to return the US to JCPOA and the Europeans always supported his stance.
Delfi emphasized that the Europeans see the possible US return to the multilateral agreement as an appropriate opportunity to achieve their objective of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons in the Middle East.
“They also believe that after the US withdrawal, they lost the tools with which they used to put pressure on Iran, he added.
The former ambassador noted that both Europeans and Americans are now pursuing other objectives in new nuclear talks, while Iran and the P5+1 had agreed to limit the talks to the nuclear issue.
The possibility of the US return to JCPOA has now raised hopes for the EU that they can add some regional and missile issues to the deal, despite Tehran’s rejection of this proposal.