No compromise in sight on Iran nuclear deal, Germany says
WASHINGTON: Europe and the United States remain deeply divided over how to proceed after Washington’s exit from the 2015 Iran nuclear accord, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday after back-toback meetings with two senior USofficials.
Maas issued his sober assessment after a meeting with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying the two officials had restated their known positions, but no new information emerged.
“I think we’re still far away from a compromise,” said Maas, who met earlier with John Bolton, USPresident Donald Trump’s new security adviser, who is known for his hawkish views.
“We’re pursuing two completely different paths.”
He said he hoped more concrete details might emerge about Washington’s plans for Iran if a four-way meeting among Germany, Britain, France and the United States could be arranged.
Maas said he told USofficials that Europe remained “very, very united” in supporting a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran because it feared a proliferation of atomic weapons on its doorstep.
Trump pulled the United States out of the accord earlier this month, shrugging off appeals from Washington’s European allies which argued that the deal had succeeded in curbing Tehran’s nuclear programme in return for a lifting of sanctions.
Scrapping the deal would allow Iran to resume its nuclear programme and this would ‘massively jeopardise’ Europe’s security, Maas told reporters after what he called a frank but constructive meeting with Bolton.
“Europe is very, very united in its position on the nuclear accord with Iran, and that will not change ... We don’t want a proliferation of nuclear weapons in our expanded neighbourhood,” Maas said.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Trump’s rejection of the nuclear deal showed that the Islamic Republic could not deal with a country that could not keep its commitments.
Maas said European countries shared USconcerns about Iran’s continued development of ballistic missiles and its behaviour in the Middle East, but believed those issues should be addressed without undermining the nuclear deal.
On Monday Pompeo threatened Iran with “the strongest sanctions in history” if it did not curb its regional influence, accusing Tehran of supporting armed groups in Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
Senior officials from the remaining parties to the accord – Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia – will meet their Iranian counterpart on Friday in Vienna. — Reuters