White House wants IAEA to carry on checking Iran’s nuclear sites

BERLIN/PARIS/MOSCOW: Europe’s heavyweight economies took steps on Friday to safeguard their interests in Iran, seeking to keep the nuclear deal with Tehran alive after Washington pulled out and said sanctions would follow.

Germany and France have significant trade links with Iran and remain committed to the nuclear agreement, as does Britain, and the three countries’ foreign ministers plan to meet on Tuesday to discuss it.

That is part of a flurry of diplomatic activity following Tuesday’s unilateral withdrawal from what US President Donald Trump called “a horrible, onesided deal”, a move accompanied by the threat of penalties against any foreign firms doing business in Iran.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said ways to save the deal without Washington needed to be discussed with Tehran, while France’s finance minister Bruno Le Maire said EU states would propose sanctions-blocking measures to the European Commission.

“Do we accept extraterritorial sanctions? The answer is no,” Le Maire told reporters.

“Do we accept that the United States is the economic gendarme of the planet? The answer is no.

“Do we accept the vassalization of Europe in commercial matters? The answer is no.”

In Berlin, economy minister Peter Altmaier said Germany was ready to give help to its affected firms, including legal advice, to continue doing business in Iran.

The Kremlin said that a shared disapproval of the US exit from the nuclear deal may help bring Russia and European nations closer.

President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said the Russian president discussed the situation around the 2015 nuclear deal in Friday’s phone call with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and their positions were “practically identical”.

Ushakov added that Putin will have further discussions on the issue with Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron when they visit Russia this month.

Meanwhile, the White House has said that it wants intrusive inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites to continue despite the US withdrawal from the accord, officials said.

The deal would force Iran to open any site to inspectors within 24 days at most and introduced 24-hour remote surveillance at some sites.

A senior administration official said The White House is demanding the existing inspection regime, however imperfect, continue under the aegis of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog.

Courtesy: Hindustan Times: 12 May 2018