EU Plan for Special Iran Payment Channel Infuriates US
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Tuesday a European Union plan to set up a way to preserve business with Iran and avoid renewed American sanctions.
Addressing the United Against a Nuclear Iran pressure group being held near the annual UN General Assembly, Pompeo said he was “disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed” by Monday’s announcement from remaining members of an international nuclear deal.
“This is one of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional peace and security,” he claimed, AFP reported.
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, speaking late Monday alongside Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers was in the global interest and pointed to UN inspectors’ findings that Iran is in compliance.
She said that European Union members were working on a legal entity that would allow businesses to buy oil and conduct other business with Iran in hopes of avoiding US sanctions.
On May 8, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
The US has also re-imposed sanctions on Iran and has devised a new wave of economic sanctions, which are aimed at pushing Iran’s oil exports down to zero.