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Eurasia
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 21
addressed to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, underscor- ing the contention of nuclear deal signatories France, Germany, the UK, Russia and China that the agreement – formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – has been effective in barring Iran’s path to the possible development of a nuclear weapon in return for the lifting of crippling sanctions since January 2016. Pointing to how the accord also helps to preserve fragile peace arrangements in the Middle East, the letter added: “An Iranian withdrawal from the [nuclear deal] would further unsettle a region where additional conflicts would be disastrous.”
The letter, posted on the official Twitter page of French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, was evidence that European political leaders have fallen into a pressing race against time to save the JCPOA. With European companies now announc- ing plans to pull out of Iran at a faster and faster rate – and even some Russian and Indian compa- nies almost giving up hope that they will be able to maintain business relations with the Iranians
– the EU’s big three countries desperately need a breakthrough in shielding companies in the bloc from secondary sanctions that would cut them off from the US financial system and expose them to a range of penalties.
The latest big names to state that they are prepar- ing to suspend their joint ventures or deals in Iran to comply with US law include PSA, which makes Peugeot and Citroen cars, and – to nobody’s sur-
prise at all – American plane manufacturing giant, Boeing, which had lined up deals with Iranian airlines worth many billions of dollars. Airbus, which needs US licensing for Iran sales as it uses American components, might well be next.
Iran, of course, will have little incentive to stay in the JCPOA if the EU does not deliver it the eco- nomic incentives to do so. And, almost certainly as a warning shot to the European powers to get a move on in challenging what it describes as Trump’s “bullying”, it on June 5 informed the UN nuclear watchdog of “tentative” plans to produce feedstock for centrifuges, the machines that en- rich uranium. The previous day Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said he had ordered prepa- rations to increase uranium enrichment capacity if the nuclear deal fell apart.
The EU, which is also urging the Trump adminis- tration to grant exemptions to maintain banking and financial channels with the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks not sanctioned by the EU, maintained a calm demeanour on news of Iran’s uranium move, saying an initial assessment concluded that it would not breach commitments made by Tehran under the JCPOA.
On June 5, meanwhile, the US showed no sign
at all of smiling kindly on the EU’s requests for sanctions-shielding. The US Treasury Department called on US allies, partners and the private sec- tor to work harder to ensure Iran does not exploit them to fund Iranian “nefarious activities.”