Iranian Official Urges Immediate EU Action as US Sanctions Loom
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – As the US is going to hit Iran with a wave of new sanctions on August 6, an Iranian official said Europe needs to take an outright measure before imposition of the sanctions if it is really willing to make up for the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.
In an interview with Tasnim, Majid Takht Ravanchi, deputy for political affairs at the Iranian president’s office, said the European parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) must take clear and outright measures immediately as part of their proposed package for securing Iran’s economic interests under the nuclear deal, from which the US government withdrew in May.
Given that the US Treasury Department is going to restore sanctions on a number of key Iranian sectors and activities on August 6, Takht Ravanchi said any compensatory measure by Europe must take place before the forthcoming US sanctions in a clear manner, because any European action will be totally useless once the US sanctions come into force and the customers refrain from buying Iran’s oil.
The European parties to the deal have been reminded that their efforts after coming into force of the US sanctions and any initiative for fresh negotiations with Iran will be pointless, he added.
The Iranian diplomat, who was involved in more than two years of nuclear talks with world powers, stressed that Europe’s failure to neutralize the August 6 sanctions on Iran will be tantamount to “negotiations for negotiations.”
“We would not hold negotiations for (another round of) negotiations, not with Europeans and not with any other side. We want our negotiations to be purposeful and fruitful,” he added.
On Monday, the US Treasury Department will re-impose sanctions on the purchase or acquisition of US dollar banknotes by Iran, sanctions on Iran’s trade in gold or precious metals and many other sectors.
On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has underlined that any decision to keep the JCPOA running without the US should be conditional on “practical guarantees” from the Europeans