Iran trade deals at risk as US rejects EU appeal on sanctions

MIKE POMPEO, the US secretary of state, has rejected a high-level appeal from the EU for exemptions from sanctions against Iran, throwing into doubt billions of euros worth of trade.

Senior officials from Britain, France and Germany had pleaded with the US not to impose sanctions next month on European companies that do business with Iran.

Mr Pompeo and Steven Mnuchin, the US treasury secretary, rejected the appeal in a letter, saying America wanted to exert “unprecedented financial pressure” on Tehran after Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal in May.

Mr Pompeo added that the US would not ease the sanctions until it saw a “tangible, demonstrable and sustained shift” in Iran’s policies. “The president withdrew from the [Iran nuclear deal] for a simple reason – it failed to guarantee the safety of the American people,” Mr Pompeo and Mr Mnuchin wrote in a letter leaked on Sunday night.

“We are thus not in a position to make exceptions to this policy except in very specific circumstances where it clearly benefits our national security.” The letter was a response to an appeal from the three European countries last month, in which they said they “strongly regret” the US decision to withdraw.

Some of Europe’s biggest firms rushed to do business with Iran after the nuclear deal was implemented in 2015 and last year the EU exported €10.8billion (£9.5billion) in goods and services to Iran. Imports from Iran were worth €10.1 billion (£8.9 billion). The other countries that reached the nuclear agreement with Iran – the UK, France, Germany, Russia and China – pledged to continue to honour the agreement to lift economic sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear programme. However, the US withdrawal may make that a practical impossibility.

A number of European companies such as Peugeot and Total have already cut back their business with Iran for fear of jeopardising their business prospects in the US.

Mr Pompeo has also ordered diplomats to seek initial talks with the Taliban in a bid to end the 17-year-conflict in Afghanistan.

General John Nicholson, the top US commander in Afghanistan, confirmed the talks would be led by the Afghan government.