Next month the US Administration concludes its review of relations with Iran and addresses its next requirement to report to the US Congress on whether Tehran continues to comply with the Iran nuclear deal. Credible reports suggest that President Trump is seeking a way to justify declaring that Iran is no longer compliant with the deal.
Today 76 senior political, diplomatic and military figures from across Europe have published a statement which a copy of it sent to Mehr News agency, arguing that any unilateral US action that jeopardizes the Iran nuclear deal would trigger a crisis in US-Europe relations, damaging the US’s international standing and credibility in Europe.
The statement’s signatories, who include Javier Solana, former EU High Representative and NATO Secretary General, George Robertson, former British Defence Secretary and former NATO Secretary General, Igor Ivanov former Russian Foreign Minister, and Wolfgang Ischinger, Chair of the Munich Security Conference,Osman Faruk Loğoğlu, former Turkish Ambassador the United States, argue that unilateral US action to decertify Iran’s compliance when the International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran is compliant would damage not only US interests but also US international standing. They express their support for the nuclear deal, arguing that it has improved global and European security and that losing it would be particularly damaging to Europe.
Coordinated through the pan-European security think-tank, the European Leadership Network, the statement calls on:
-President Trump and the US Congress to address Iranian compliance on the terms of the deal, not on other points; understand that the deal cannot be expected to solve non-nuclear issues; and accept that the fastest path to an Iranian nuclear weapon would be to undermine this agreement.
-The deal’s European signatories – the European Union and the German, French, Russian and British governments – to make clear publicly as well as privately that they would be unable to support the United States in the UN Security Council and would work to see the nuclear deal continued with Iran in the absence of US participation, including defending European companies and individuals from any re-introduced US sanctions
The Director of the European Leadership Network, Sir Adam Thomson, said,“Unilateral US action against the Iran nuclear deal would be a fast route to a second nuclear crisis alongside that with North Korea and would trigger a deep US-Europe division. Iran’s agreement is as much with Europe (and Russia and China) as with the United States. This statement underlines how much Europe’s voice needs to be heard in Washington.”
PY/PR