As US levies sanctions, Europe, Iran push to save nuclear deal
WASHINGTON — The United States intensified its financial pressure on Iran Tuesday, slapping anti-terror sanctions on the head of its central bank and barring anyone around the world from doing business with him. Meanwhile, European powers and Tehran committed to keep working together to save the Iran nuclear deal despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s determination to kill it off.
European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany said after talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif that salvage efforts focused on economic, business and banking issues could produce “practical solutions in the next few weeks”
“There was awareness of the urgency,” Mogherini said after the meeting in Brussels.
“If I can use the metaphor that some raised around the table, we all have a relative in intensive care and we all want to get him or her out of intensive care as soon as possible,” she said.
Valiollah Seif, the governor of the Iranian central bank, was named a “specially designated global terrorist” along with another senior official, Ali Tarzali, who works in the central bank’s international division. The Treasury Department accused the men of secretly funneling millions of dollars through an Iraqi bank to help Hezbollah, the militant network that the U.S. considers a terrorist group.
Although the sanctions do not technically extend to the central bank itself, they could significantly increase Iran’s isolation from the global financial system. Seif, whose role is equivalent to the Federal Reserve chairman in the U.S., oversees major financial decisions in Iran. Any transactions that involve his signature could potentially run afoul of the sanctions, creating a strong disincentive for governments or businesses considering deals involving Iran’s central bank.
“The United States will not permit Iran’s increasingly brazen abuse of the international financial system,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said. “The global community must remain vigilant against Iran’s deceptive efforts to provide financial support to its terrorist proxies.”
Typically, when the U.S. punishes individuals with sanctions, it prohibits Americans or U.S. companies from doing business with them. In this case, the U.S. chose to also impose “secondary sanctions,” which also apply to non-Americans and non-U.S. companies. That means that anyone, in any country, who does business with Seif or Tarzali could themselves be punished.
The latest move comes as Trump’s administration, deeming the 2015 nuclear accord insufficiently tough on Iran, seeks to construct a global coalition to place enough pressure on Tehran that it comes back to the negotiating table.
Yet the European members of the international accord, livid at Trump over his withdrawal, have yet to commit to that effort. To the contrary, Britain, France and Germany are working to salvage it. Their top diplomats met Tuesday in Brussels with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a bid to keep Iran from bailing.
Germany, France and Britain all are signatories of the 2015 deal, which was meant to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
Mogherini said “expert talks” on relevant financial and economic issues such as banking transactions and oil would begin soon and the deputy foreign ministers from the three European nations and Iran would meet in Vienna next week.
“We reaffirmed together our resolve to continue to implement the nuclear deal in all its parts, in good faith, and in a constructive atmosphere,” she said.
Said Iran’s Zarif: “We are on the right track. A lot depends on what we can do within the next few weeks.”
The steps forward underscored the EU’s hopes that diplomacy and the promise of economic benefits might keep Iran in the fold of a nuclear deal that Europe sees as essential to security.
“It won’t be easy, that’s clear to all of us. But if we want to stay in this agreement and ensure that Iran stays in this agreement and abides to the terms of the agreement, then we need to talk about this,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.
At the same time, the European diplomats wanted to show they weren’t gullible and wouldn’t drop other divisive issues with Tehran, including its role in the Syria conflict.
“I want to stress we are under no illusion about the stuff Iran gets up to in the region, in the Middle East. We have no illusions about Iran’s disruptive behavior, but we think we can tackle those in other ways,” British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson said.
Mogherini agreed at the end of a long day of diplomatic meetings.
“As you know very well, we have many other disagreements,” she said. But, she added, “with the nuclear deal in place we have better chances to address any other issues we have to address with Iran.”
Trump’s withdrawal from the deal has imperiled not only the accord, but the threat of sanctions could trickle down to European companies doing business with Iran.
“We have to accept, be realistic about the electrified rail, the live wire of American extraterritoriality and how that can serve as a deterrent to businesses,” Johnson said.