Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told EU Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete on Sunday that the European Union was not doing enough under the current circumstances to maintain Iran’s gains from the nuclear deal after Washington’s exit.
Canete held talks with Zarif on the second day of his visit to Tehran.
“With the withdrawal of America .... the European political support for the accord is not sufficient,” the Iranian foreign minister told the EU energy commissioner, as Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported, according to Reuters.
Reuters also quoted Zarif as saying that the announcement of the possible withdrawal by major European companies from their cooperation with Iran was not consistent with the European Union’s commitment to implementing the nuclear deal.
Canete, for his part, stressed following his two-day meetings with Iranian officials, the need to preserve the JCPOA.
“We have to preserve this agreement so we don’t have to negotiate a new agreement,” he stated, according to Reuters. “Our message is very clear. This is a nuclear agreement that works.”
Meanwhile, the spiritual leader’s advisor for international affairs, Ali Akbar Velayati, criticized on Sunday what he described as the European countries’ “double standards”, pointing to a “contradiction” in the positions of European officials.
“Some members of the European Union say they are committed to the JCPOA… but some other European officials say they are not going to stand against the Americans and give guarantees,” Velayati told reporters in Tehran, as reported by Tasnim News Agency.
“This contradiction in the European officials’ remarks is dubious,” he said, adding, “We hope that our administration officials would be able to receive the necessary guarantees in their negotiations because otherwise, a party that is equivocal and makes contradictory remarks cannot be trusted.”
