News ID: 239001
Published: 0249 GMT February 17, 2019

Iran pressures Europe for more effort to save nuclear deal

Iran pressures Europe for more effort to save nuclear deal

International Desk

Zarif warns Israel, US seeking war with Iran

Europeans need to do more than talk if they want to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran after the unilateral withdrawal of the United States, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Sunday, slamming Washington as the "biggest source of destabilization" in the Middle East.

Zarif told a gathering of world leaders, top defense officials and diplomats that a barter-type system known as INSTEX set up last month by France, Germany and Britain to allow businesses to skirt direct financial transactions with Iran, and thereby evade possible US sanctions, is not enough.

But while Zarif welcomed the EU's political support, he demanded Europe "walk the walk".

"Many around the world, particularly on this continent, speak eloquently about multilateralism, but they also need to walk the walk," Zarif told the Munich Security Conference in an impassioned address. "For instance, INSTEX falls short of the commitments by the (European countries) to save the nuclear deal. Europe needs to be willing to get wet if it wants to swim against a dangerous tide of US unilateralism."


The three European nations, as well as Russia, China and the European Union as a whole, have been struggling to save the 2015 deal with Iran since President Donald Trump announced the unilateral American withdrawal last year and reinstated sanctions.

The deal promises Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear program, and so far the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Tehran has been living up to its obligations.


On Saturday, US Vice President Mike Pence slammed INSTEX, and urged others to abandon the nuclear deal entirely.

"The time has come for our European partners to stop undermining US sanctions," Pence said before leaving Germany. "The time has come for our European partners to stand with us... The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal."

Before Pence spoke, German Chancellor Angela Merkel defended the Iran deal, saying, it was important to keep the deal.

“The only question is how we attain our mutual goal… Do we do that by terminating our agreement, or do we help it more by keeping the small anchor we have (via the nuclear deal)?” she asked. “This is a tactical question.”

Merkel's comments, and her defense of global diplomacy instead of go-it-alone foreign policy, drew lengthy applause.

Zarif told the conference that Pence had "arrogantly demanded that Europe must join the United States in undermining its own security and breaking its obligations" to the treaty under international law and urged them to push back against American pressure.

"If the United States were to come, in the course of their fight with China, and tell Europe to stop dealing with China, what would you do?" he asked. "Whatever you (would) want to do then, do now in order to prevent that eventuality."

He would not comment on whether the nuclear deal will survive without the US but said Iran was not prepared to renegotiate it as Trump has suggested.



US source of instability

Responding to Pence's comments that Iran was the "greatest threat to peace in the Middle East," Zarif said the US had an "unhealthy fixation" and "pathological obsession" with Iran and was itself the "single biggest source of destabilization in our neighborhood."

"The US claims, and unfortunately some blindly parrot, that it is Iran which is interfering in the region, but has it ever been asked whose region?" Zarif said. "Just glimpse at a map for a second — the US military has traveled 10,000 kilometers to dot all our borders with its bases. There is a joke that it is Iran's fault that it put itself in the middle of all (the) US bases."

He went on with his blistering attack on Pence, saying his allegations that Tehran was plotting a "new Holocaust" were "hateful" and "ignorant".

"His hateful accusations against Iran including his ignorant allegations of anti-Semitism (…) are both ridiculous but at the same time very very dangerous," Zarif said.


Israel, US seeking war



Accusing Israel of violating international law after bombing campaigns in Syria, Zarif also criticized European powers for not calling out Israel and the United States for their behavior in the region.

"The risk (of war) is great. The risk will be even greater if you continue to turn a blind eye to severe violations of international law.

"Israeli behavior is putting international law on the shelf, US behavior is putting international law on the shelf."

AP, AFP and Reuters contributed to this story. 


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