Iran dismisses US talks offer after sanctions

US President Donald Trump warned countries against doing business with Iran yesterday as he hailed the “most biting sanctions ever imposed.”

“The Iran sanctions have officially been cast. These are the most biting sanctions ever imposed, and in November they ratchet up to yet another level,” Trump wrote in an early morning tweet. “Anyone doing business with Iran will NOT be doing business with the United States. I am asking for WORLD PEACE, nothing less.”

Within hours of the sanctions taking effect, German automaker Daimler said it was halting its business activities in Iran.

Trump’s withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement in May had already spooked investors and triggered a run on the Iranian rial long before nuclear-related sanctions went back into force.

The sanctions reimposed yesterday — targeting access to US banknotes and key industries such as cars and carpets — were unlikely to cause immediate economic turmoil. But the second tranche on November 5 covering Iran’s vital oil sector could be far more damaging.

In a statement on Monday before the sanctions were reimposed, Trump said: “The Iranian regime faces a choice.

“Either change its threatening, destabilizing behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation.

“I remain open to reaching a more comprehensive deal that addresses the full range of the regime’s malign activities, including its ballistic missile programme and its support for terrorism,” Trump said.

But his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani dismissed the idea of talks while crippling sanctions were in effect.

“If you’re an enemy and you stab the other person with a knife, and then you say you want negotiations, then the first thing you have to do is remove the knife,” he told state television. “They want to launch psychological warfare against the Iranian nation,” Rouhani said. “Negotiations with sanctions doesn’t make sense.”

European governments are infuriated by Trump’s strategy, which leaves their businesses in Iran faced with the threat of US legal penalties.

The European Union’s foreign policy chief encouraged companies to do more business with Iran despite new US sanctions, saying Tehran had upheld its commitments under the deal to limit its nuclear program.

Federica Mogherini

told reporters yesterday during her trip to Wellington, New Zealand, that it’s up to Europeans to decide whom they want to trade with.

“We are doing our best to keep Iran in the deal, to keep Iran benefiting from the economic benefits that the agreement brings to the people of Iran because we believe this is in the security interests of not only our region, but also of the world,” she said. “If there is one piece of international agreements on nuclear non-proliferation that is delivering, it has to be maintained.”

European allies said they “deeply regret” the US action.

European ministers said the Iran deal was crucial for Europe’s and the world’s security, and the EU issued a “blocking statute” on Monday to protect European businesses from the impact of the sanctions.

Mogherini, speaking at a news conference alongside New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters, said the EU and New Zealand saw the need to maintain the nuclear deal with Iran, notwithstanding the US withdrawal, and that she and Peters had discussed in detail how to keep open trade and financial channels with Iran.

“We are encouraging small and medium enterprises in particular to increase business with and in Iran as part of something (that) for us is a security priority,” Mogherini said, explaining that trade is an integral part of the nuclear deal.

Trade between Iran and the EU “is a fundamental aspect of the Iranian right to have an economic advantage in exchange for what they have done so far, which is being compliant with all their nuclear-related commitments,” Mogherini said.

British Foreign Office Minister Alastair Burt told the BBC that the “Americans have really not got this right.” He said it was a commercial decision for companies whether to stay in Iran, but that Britain believed the nuclear deal was important “not only to the region’s security but the world’s security.”

Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that it was “deeply disappointed by US steps to reimpose its national sanctions against Iran.”

The ministry said it will do “everything necessary” to save the historic 2015 Iran nuclear deal and protect its shared economic interests with Tehran.

“This is a clear example of Washington violating UN Resolution 2231 (on the Iran deal) and international law,” the statement said.