US looks to build new coalition after quitting Iran nuclear deal

Washington seeks to address the totality of Iran’s threats, but EU wants to save accord

After leaving the Iran nuclear deal, Washington wants to move forward by offering to build a “coalition” to counter the multiple “threats” posed by the Tehran regime — but Europeans intent on saving the 2015 accord may thwart that effort.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tomorrow will unveil a new “diplomatic road map” for Iran — how America plans to “address the totality of Iran’s threats,” according to the State Department’s director of policy planning, Brian Hook.

Washington is looking to draft a “new security architecture and a better security framework, a better deal,” Hook told reporters ahead of the speech, the first major policy address by Pompeo since he became America’s top diplomat. “The US will be working hard to put together a coalition,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, flagging Washington’s bid for a multilateral approach after its unilateral withdrawal from the accord.

President Donald Trump has long trashed the deal with Iran — concluded under his predecessor Barack Obama, together with Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — saying it did not do enough to curtail Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.

The Republican leader also said it did not go far enough in restricting Iran’s ballistic missile programme, or its intervention in regional conflicts from Yemen to Iraq and Syria.

“We need a new — a framework that’s going to address the totality of Iran’s threats,” Hook said. So far, the guidelines of this new strategy are unclear.

The big unknown is whether European leaders, who were bitterly disappointed by Trump’s decision to ditch the deal, would be willing to return to talks with his administration anytime soon.

For now, the European Union is trying to persuade Iran to stay in the 2015 agreement, even without Washington’s participation. The re-establishment of the US sanctions that were lifted after the Iran nuclear deal was signed will force European companies to choose between investing in Iran or trading with US.

In reality, there is no choice — European companies cannot afford to forsake the US market.

And with investment from Europe — which had been the main carrot dangled before the Iranians to right their struggling economy — now stymied, Tehran may have little incentive to hold up its end of the bargain.

EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete arrived in Tehran yesterday to present plans for continuing oil and gas purchases and protect European companies despite renewed US sanctions on Iran.

Canete was due to meet Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation head Ali Akbar Salehi, Environment Minister Isa Kalantari and Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh yesterday.

Talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif were scheduled for today.

He is the first Western official to visit Iran since President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal, and would reimpose sanctions, that are expected to hit European firms hardest.

Although European leaders have made firm vows to maintain the deal, many of their companies — including France’s Total and Holland’s Maersk — have already said it will be impossible to stay in Iran once US sanctions are fully reimposed over the next six months.

Iran’s trade with the European Union is around €20 billion (Dh86.5 billion), evenly split between imports and exports.

The vast majority of EU purchases from Iran — 90 per cent — is oil purchases, going primarily to Spain, France, Italy, Greece, the Netherlands and Germany.

Iran, which has the world’s fourth-biggest oil reserves, produces some 3.8 million barrels of oil per day, 70 per cent of which goes to China and other Asian countries, and 20 per cent to Europe.

It also has the second-biggest gas reserves in the world, but limited infrastructure means little is exported.

Russia and China — the other parties to the nuclear deal — have also vowed to maintain trade with Iran, and because they are less exposed to US markets, are less vulnerable to economic pressure from Washington.