Talks seek to circumvent extraterritorial sanctions

PARIS, May 23, (Agencies): The US decision to scrap the Iran nuclear deal and implement a tough strategy on the country will strengthen Tehran’s hardliners and endanger the region as a whole, France’s foreign minister said on Wednesday.

Jean-Yves Le Drian was speaking two days after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would impose “the strongest sanctions in history” if Iran did not curb its regional influence and limit its ballistic missile programme.

“We disagree with the method because this collection of sanctions, which will be set up against Iran, will not enable dialogue and on the contrary it will reinforce the conservatives and weaken President (Hassan) Rouhani. This posture risks endangering the region more,” Le Drian told France Inter radio.

He said Paris shared Washington’s concerns over Iran’s ballistic missile “frenzy” and regional hegemonic ambitions, but that the 2015 nuclear deal was the best chance of stopping Tehran developing a nuclear bomb.

Deputy foreign ministers of the remaining parties to the accord — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — will meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Vienna.

The meeting will assess what can be done to keep the deal and circumvent extraterritorial American sanctions that are already impacting foreign business appetite for Iran.

European companies say they are worried about getting caught up in the new US sanctions, given the extent of Washington’s global reach, and some have already started pulling out.

“We have another problem which is the security of our companies and the capacity to give Iran the economic benefits that it can expect in return for giving up on nuclear weapons,” Le Drian said.

“These (US) sanctions are not acceptable. We can’t allow them to become legitimate.”

Speculation is swirling over the prospect of US willingness to push regime change in Tehran, as US officials including Washington’s top diplomat urge Iranians to “choose for themselves” their government.

“The Iranian people get to choose for themselves the kind of leadership they want,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday after outlining a day prior aggressive measures designed to counter Tehran, including what he dubbed the “strongest sanctions in history.”

Pompeo has made similar comments in recent days. Experts consider the remarks as admission of a strategy that aims to trigger the collapse of the regime born out of the 1979 Islamic Revolution that shattered US-Iranian relations.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said US “policy is not regime change” — but made clear the United States would “welcome” a new era in Tehran.

“If the Iranian people were to choose, somewhere down the road, to make their views known, they’re certainly welcome to do so,” she said.

“The Iranian people for far too long have lived under a regime that has mistreated its people.”

President Trump had already raised the specter of regime change when he announced the US would pull out of the Iran nuclear accord earlier this month, saying Iranians “deserve a nation that does justice to their dreams.”

Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani also told exiled Iranian opposition figures “we have a president who is as committed to regime change as we are.”

The prospect finds support from neoconservative circles, and remains charged in the US since the 2003 military intervention that toppled Saddam Hussein -- a move now widely considered a blunder, including by Trump.

Foreign policy analysts have noted the appointment of so-called “hawks” to key positions, including Pompeo and John Bolton, the national security advisor.

Both have advocated for regime change in the past.

“I’m convinced that the people of Iran, when they can see a path forward which will lead their country to stop behaving in this way, will choose that path,” Pompeo said.

Iran on Wednesday launched a fresh barrage of criticism at US demands for sweeping change in its foreign policy and nuclear programme, and Tehran’s ally Damascus flatly dismissed a US call for a withdrawal of Iranian forces from Syria.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the US government would be defeated like Iraq’s deposed leader Saddam Hussein if it attacked Iran, Iranian state TV reported.

France, one of several European powers dismayed by the US withdrawal from a 2015 nuclear accord, said Washington’s method of adding more sanctions on Tehran would reinforce the country’s dominant hardliners.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday threatened Iran with “the strongest sanctions in history” if it did not curb its regional influence, accusing Tehran of supporting armed groups in countries such as Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.

Pompeo was speaking two weeks after President Trump pulled out of an international nuclear deal with Iran that had lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs to its nuclear programme. European powers see the accord as the best chance of stopping Tehran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Pompeo had repeated old allegations against Tehran “only with a stronger and more indecent tone”.

“Mr Pompeo and other US officials in the current administration are prisoners of their wrong illusions, prisoners of their past and have been taken hostage by corrupt pressure groups,” he told state television.