EU bid for new Iran sanctions to meet Trump’s nuclear deal ultimatum
Britain, France and Germany have proposed new EU sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its role in Syria’s war to try to persuade the United States to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
A confidential joint paper, seen by Reuters, was sent to EU capitals on Friday because the sanctions would need the support of all 28 EU member governments.
The EU hopes to save the accord signed by world powers that curbs Tehran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by showing US President Donald Trump that there are other ways to counter Iranian power abroad.
Mr Trump delivered an ultimatum to the European signatories on January 12.
He said they must agree to “fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal”, signed under his predecessor Barack Obama, or he would refuse to extend US sanctions relief on Iran.
US sanctions will resume unless Mr Trump issues waivers to suspend them on May 12.
“We will therefore be circulating in the coming days a list of persons and entities that we believe should be targeted in view of their publicly demonstrated roles,” the document said, referring to Iranian ballistic missile tests and Tehran’s role in backing Syria’s government in the civil war.
The step reflects frustration with Tehran.
“We’re getting irritated. We’ve been talking to them for 18 months and have had no progress on these issues,” a diplomat said.
EU foreign ministers will discuss the proposal at a closeddoor meeting tomorrow in Brussels, diplomats said.
Analysts say the nuclear agreement could collapse if Washington pulls out.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif struck a defiant note towards Washington on Friday.
“If the US makes the mistake of pulling out of the [agreement], it will definitely be a painful mistake for the Americans,” Mr Zarif told Iranian state TV. He did not refer to the possibility of new sanctions.
The commission overseeing the nuclear accord said on Friday in Vienna that Iran was meeting its obligations under the deal.
The document said the EU authors were in “intensive talks with the Trump administration to achieve a clear reaffirmation of US support for the agreement beyond May 12”.
A US state department official said: “We don’t want to get ahead of the EU’s decision-making process. There is broad agreement on the areas that need strengthening, but how that’s done in each of the three areas is the subject of our negotiations.”
The document referred to sanctions that would “target militias and commanders”.
It proposes building on the EU’s sanctions list related to Syria, which includes travel bans and asset freezes on people and a ban on doing business or financing public and private companies.
It was strident in its criticism of Iran’s ballistic weapons, which Tehran has said are for defensive purposes, saying there were “transfers of Iranian missiles and missile technology” to Syria and allies of Tehran, such as Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
“Such a proliferation of Iranian missile capabilities throughout the region is an additional and serious source of concern,” the document said.
While the EU retains some sanctions on Iranians over human rights abuses, it rescinded its economic and financial restrictions on Iran in 2016 and does not want to be seen to be reneging on the agreement.
Iran signed up to limits on its uranium enrichment, which it has repeatedly said is for peaceful power generation not nuclear bombs but has refused to discuss its missiles.
Tehran has dismissed western assertions that its activities in the Middle East are destabilising, and also rejected Mr Trump’s demands to renegotiate the nuclear accord.
In the document, Britain, France and Germany set out questions and answers seeking to show that legally, the European powers would not be breaking the nuclear deal. It said they were “entitled to adopt additional sanctions against Iran” as long as they were not nuclear-related.
The European powers said new sanctions were justified because Iran “did not commit further to stop undertaking ballistic missile destabilising activities” under the nuclear agreement.
The nuclear deal’s terms did not cover ballistic missiles.