EU must defend 'core' of Iran nuclear deal: Commission chief
The European Union Commission chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, has warned about the adverse consequences of the United States' move to pull out from a key nuclear agreement Iran signed with the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, saying the EU must adopt measures to protect the deal's core provisions.
"The termination of the Iran agreement by the US doesn’t benefit global peace," he said in an interview with Hannoversche Allgemeine newspaper on Saturday.
"As co-architects of the Iran deal, we must defend its core," he added.
US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, said the 28-nation bloc was determined to save the JCPOA despite the US pullout from the deal.
She added, "You know that we have been acting already at European Union level to put in place a set of measures to make sure that the nuclear agreement is preserved and the economic investments from the European side, but also from other sides in the world are protected."
Juncker further said the nuclear pact should not be sacrificed for the sake of the US political expediency.
"The Middle East is on the cusp of great turmoil. And we are close," he cautioned.
After Trump's move to withdraw from the JCPOA, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said the US stood to suffer the most.
Ali Akbar Velayati said, "The Islamic Republic of Iran fully protects its independence and will by no means bow to their (Americans’) bullying and we have proved this over the past 40 years."
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