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All tagged EU
◢ Top EU diplomat Josep Borrell is Monday due to visit Iran, said officials in Tehran and Brussels, on his first trip there since taking office, aiming to reduce rising tensions over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program. Borrel is set to meet President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani on the two-day trip, his office said in a statement.
◢ Germany''s defense minister on Thursday confirmed a report that the United States was threatening to impose a 25 percent tariff on European car exports if it continued backing the Iran nuclear deal. "This expression or threat, as you will, does exist," Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told reporters.
◢ Iran's foreign minister has been invited to Brussels, the European Union said Sunday, January 5, urging a "de-escalation of tensions" in the Persian Gulf after a US air strike that killed top general Qassem Soleimani. The EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell made the offer to Mohammad Javad Zarif during a telephone call this weekend.
◢ Iran's atomic agency chief hit out Sunday at European powers, saying their broken promises gave the Islamic republic little choice but to scale back its commitments under a nuclear deal. "The European Union was supposed to be the replacement of the US but, unfortunately, they failed to act on their promises," Salehi told reporters.
◢ The European Union said Thursday it regrets the US decision to impose sanctions against Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and vowed to continue working with him. “We regret this decision,” said Carlos Martin Ruiz De Gordejuela, a spokesman for EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini.
◢ European foreign ministers held crisis talks Monday on saving the beleaguered Iran nuclear deal as Britain warned the "small window" for success was closing and Tehran issued fresh threats of restarting its atomic program. British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt—who held phone talks with his US and Iranian counterparts at the weekend—insisted "the deal isn't dead yet.”
◢ Europe pledged to keep afloat its efforts to aid Iran after the U.S. tightened the screw by targeting all exports of Iranian oil for sanctions. The French government and the European Union both said they will abide by the terms of the Iran nuclear accord with world powers even after the latest U.S. move.
◢ Responding to the devastating floods that have recently affected northern and south western parts of Iran, the European Commission has announced an initial amount of EUR 1.2 million of emergency funding to assist the most vulnerable communities.
◢ The EU warned Tehran over its ballistic missile program and interference in the Syria conflict Monday, while welcoming a new mechanism to trade with Iran while bypassing US sanctions. In a long-awaited statement on Iran that has been the subject of more than a week of wrangling in Brussels, the EU restated its commitment to saving the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and took aim at Washington for abandoning the pact and reimposing sanctions.
◢ A payment mechanism the EU hopes will save the Iran nuclear deal by bypassing US sanctions is ready, diplomats said Monday, but is held up by disagreements among European countries. The "Special Purpose Vehicle" is being put together by Germany, France and Britain, the European signatories to the 2015 accord that curbed Tehran's nuclear ambitions in return for sanctions reilef.
◢ The United States urged the European Union on Monday to apply sanctions targeting Iran's ballistic missile program, calling it a "grave and escalating threat." Over the weekend, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo charged that Iran tested a medium-range missile capable of carrying multiple warheads and striking parts of Europe and the entire Middle East.
◢ EU foreign ministers on Monday agreed to examine possible sanctions against Iran over two foiled attacks in Europe blamed on Iranian intelligence, as demands grow for tough action against Tehran. France has hit two suspected Iranian agents with asset freezes over a plot to bomb a rally near Paris, while Denmark has called for a coordinated EU response to a foiled murder bid on its soil.
◢ The EU effort to save the Iran nuclear accord by building a mechanism to buy Tehran's oil despite the return of US sanctions has run into difficulty. Brussels supports the deal struck in 2015 to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions, which was dealt a blow in May when the US President Donald Trump pulled out. But Washington has announced the reimposition of broad sanctions from November 4, including on Iran's oil sector, scaring off European traders.
◢ President Hassan Rouhani said Saturday that the divisions between the US and Europe over renewed sanctions on Iran were a "rare historical victory" for the Islamic republic. EU countries have fiercely opposed the decision by US President Donald Trump to abandon their landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimpose sanctions—the last of which will return on November 5.
◢ 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.
◢ Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accused European leaders of "appeasing" Iran instead of confronting its militant activity. Netanyahu's remarks, made in a cabinet meeting, feed into his ongoing efforts to sway world leaders to join the United States in upping pressure on Israel's arch foe through sanctions.
◢ A European Union aid plan for Iran sends "the wrong message at the wrong time" to the government in Tehran, the US State Department said Friday. The USD 20.7 million EU assistance package "perpetuates the regime's ability to neglect the needs of its people and stifles meaningful policy changes," read a statement Friday signed by US special representative for Iran Brian Hook.
◢ Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday that Europe had not yet shown it was willing to "pay the price" of defying Washington in order to save the nuclear deal. Zarif said European governments had put forward proposals to maintain oil and banking ties with Iran after the second phase of US sanctions return in November. But he told Iran's Young Journalist Club website that these measures were more "a statement of their position than practical measures".
◢ The EU said Monday it deeply regretted the US reimposition of sanctions on Iran after President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear pact, and vowed immediate steps to protect European companies. The statement by EU diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said it would also work to keep "effective financial channels" open with Iran.
◢ EU countries on Monday gave European firms legal cover to operate in Iran despite the US pullout from the nuclear deal, after a report that the Trump administration has rejected calls by Brussels for an exemption from sanctions. The bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the 28 countries were doing all they could to save the deal but conceded President Donald Trump's administration could still wreck it.
