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Eurasia
September 28, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 18
EU, Russia, China say plan is on the way to shield companies from Trump’s Iran sanctions
Will Conroy in Prague
Europe is still struggling to convince onlookers that it is doing anything much to maintain the value of the nuclear deal for Iran following Donald Trump’s unilateral abandonment of the accord five months ago, but on September 25 the EU’s foreign policy chief linked up with Russia and China to announce what she billed as a breakthrough.
The EU along with the remaining major power signatories of the multilateral deal – Russia, China as well as the UK, Germany and France – said they would establish a new payment system via
a special purpose vehicle to maintain business with Iran and bypass US sanctions. The envisaged system would mean oil and other companies could continue trading with Iran while being shielded from American penalties as they would not be reliant on the US-led global market and dollar.
So how would it work? Well, for now EU foreign pol- icy head Federica Mogherini wasn’t saying. In fact, nobody was saying as the ins and outs of the system are still being determined by technical experts.
Mogherini announced the plan after talks at the UN in New York with the remaining members of the accord. They say Trump was absolutely wrong to withdraw the US from the agreement as Iran is in full compliance with its provisions, namely measures meant to bar its path to the development of a nuclear weapon in exchange for the lifting of crippling sanctions.
A statement from the signatories said they were de- termined to "protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran".
As EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini jointly announced the payment system move the remaining major power nuclear deal signatories put out a statement saying they must "protect the freedom of their economic operators to pursue legitimate business with Iran".
Not surprisingly, however, the payment system plan has gone down rather badly with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who, according to Reuters, said at the United Against Nuclear Iran Summit, held on the sidelines of the Assembly: “Unfortunately, just last night I was disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed to hear remaining parties in the Iran [nuclear] deal announce they are setting up a special payment system to bypass U.S. sanctions. This is one of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional global peace and security. By sustaining revenues to the regime you are solidifying Iran’s ranking as [the] No. 1 state sponsor of terror.”
Strong symbolism
There is strong symbolism in the ‘West minus Trump’ standing shoulder to shoulder with Iran and an agreement, struck after painstaking negotiations, that has not been breached – the UN’s nuclear watchdog agrees that is the case. That might be why the hardliners in Iran have
to date not caused too much trouble for Iran’s centrist and pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani, despite the deepening economic turmoil that the US’ renewed sanctions assault on the Islamic Republic is causing. But at some point, the hardliners, and indeed all Iranians, will
want to see an economic payoff from staying in the accord, agreed under the Barack Obama administration and formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The big dilemma is that analysts doubt whether a payment mechanism as proposed by the remaining JCPOA signatories is feasible given that the US