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 Tehran Times news paper,
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 Logoglu, 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.”
SOURCE :TehranTimes