BFF-06 Iran talks aim to save nuclear deal after US pullout

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BFF-06

IRAN-NUCLEAR-DIPLOMACY-AUSTRIA

Iran talks aim to save nuclear deal after US pullout

VIENNA, July 6, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – The top diplomats of Iran and five world
powers meet Friday as Tehran seeks assurances it will benefit economically
from the nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal from the pact.

But in a setback on the eve of the talks, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani
told French President Emmanuel Macron that European economic measures now on
offer did not go far enough.

Rouhani, who this week visited Europe to rally support for the nuclear
deal’s survival, said in a phone call with Macron that the package “does not
meet all our demands”, reported Iran’s IRNA state news agency.

Since US President Donald Trump’s shock move in May, which dismayed all
other signatories, Washington has warned other countries to end trade and
investment in Iran and stop buying its oil from early November or face
punitive measures.

The other signatories — Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia — have
vowed to stay in the accord but appear powerless to stop their countries’
companies pulling out of Iran for fear of US penalties.

The Vienna meeting of foreign ministers will discuss the European offer
that aims to persuade Iran to stick with the 2015 deal, a European diplomat
said without specifying the measures.

The top diplomats of the five powers and the European Union were due to
join Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from 0900 GMT in Vienna,
where the accord was signed.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week the talks
should give an “impetus” to protect the interests of economic actors.

And Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the meeting would “send a united
and determined signal” to the world that the other parties “will continue to
respect the agreement”.

– ‘Crime and aggression’ –

Iranians have complained that the hoped-for rise in foreign investment and
trade after the deal has not materialised.

Since Trump’s announcement, Iran’s rial currency has fallen, prices have
risen and the country has been hit by street protests and strikes.

Rouhani, who signed the nuclear deal, has been attacked at home by ultra-
conservatives, who have denounced his willingness to talk to the West and
accused him of hurting the economy.

Visiting Austria on Wednesday, he met Yukiya Amano, head of the UN nuclear
watchdog IAEA which monitors Iran’s compliance with the accord.

Rouhani told Amano that US sanctions were a “crime and aggression” that
other nations should resist, according to IRNA.

He added that “if the other signatories, apart from the United States, can
guarantee Iran’s interests then Iran will stay in the JCPOA”, or Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, the accord’s formal name.

Trump in May slammed the nuclear accord signed under his predecessor Barack
Obama as “horrible” and “defective at its core,” earning applause from Iran’s
regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Iran, which strongly denies ever having sought a nuclear bomb, has warned
it could resume uranium enrichment for civilian purposes if the deal
collapses.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran “will never
tolerate both suffering from sanctions and nuclear restrictions”.

US-Iran relations have been hostile since the 1979 overthrow of the US-
backed shah and US embassy hostage crisis.

Washington considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, with links to
Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hamas in the Palestinian territories and networks in
Iraq and Yemen, and demands it cease support of Syrian President Bashar al-
Assad.

The new round of diplomacy has been clouded after security services said
they had foiled an alleged plot to bomb a Paris rally by an exiled Iranian
opposition group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran.

The large rally last Saturday attracted several US politicians, including
former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, now Trump’s personal lawyer.

Six people were arrested in Belgium, France and Germany, while the
opposition group blamed the Iranian regime for the alleged plot.

One of those detained was a diplomat attached to the Iranian embassy in
Austria.

Tehran dismissed it is an orchestrated “false flag ploy”, designed to
discredit Iran and overshadow Rouhani’s trip to Europe, and Wednesday
summoned the French and Belgian ambassadors and the German charge d’affaires
in protest.

BSS/AFP/MRI/0836 hrs