EU launches steps to fight US sanctions on Iran

BRUSSELS (AFP) — The European Union on Friday took steps to avoid reimposed United States sanctions on Iran and save the international nuclear deal, as a rift with Washington widened.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, moved to help EU firms skirt US penalties and have member governments directly pay Iran’s central bank for oil.

The commission, which took two other steps, said it was acting on a “green light” EU leaders gave at a meeting in the Bulgarian capital Sofia last Thursday.

The commission “launched the formal process to activate the blocking statute by updating the list of US sanctions on Iran falling within its scope,” it said.

The executive said it hopes the statute will be in force before Aug. 6 when the first batch of re-imposed US sanctions take effect.

US President Donald Trump last week pulled Washington out of the 2015 international deal with Iran to curb its nuclear program in return for easing sanctions.

The statute, which the 28 EU memberstates and the European Parliament must endorse, is aimed at reassuring European firms that invested in Iran after the deal.

“The blocking statute forbids EU companies from complying with the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions,” the commission said.

It also “allows companies to recover damages arising from such sanctions from the person causing them, and nullifies the effect in the EU of any foreign court judgments based on them,” the executive added.