Iran demands guarantees from Europe to stay in deal

 Iran threatened to nix its nuclear deal unless the three European signatories to the nuclear deal — France, Germany and the United Kingdom — offer Tehran strong incentives.

“We do not trust the three European countries, like we don’t trust the US; without receiving a strong guarantee from these three European countries, we won’t stick to the nuclear agreement [the JCPOA],” Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday in Tehran.

An English version of the speech he gave in the aftermath of the US decision to nix the deal and reimpose sanctions on Iran was posted on his web site.

 The E3 countries have been hopefully they can sway Iran to remain in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action under which Tehran agreed to curb is nuclear program in exchange for an agreement from the six world powers that they would lift their economic sanctions.

Russia and China are also signatories to the deal and, like the E3, have no interest in ending it.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani in a telephone call on Wednesday to respect the deal.

“The French president and the Iranian president agreed to continue their joint work with all concerned states in order to keep implementing the nuclear deal and preserve regional stability,” Macron’s office said in a statement.

Macron assured Rouhani of France’s desire to keep the nuclear accord alive and pressed Tehran to do the same.

French Foreign Miniser Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio that high level talks would take place between the E3 countries and Iran.

“We will meet the Iranians next week with my German and British colleagues,” Drian told RTL radio, adding that the meeting would likely take place on Monday or Tuesday.

“It’s not a European summit, it’s a meeting between ministers,” he said.

Meetings would also be held with the likes of oil giant Total and others with major business and economic stakes in the region, he added.

“The deal isn’t dead. Sorry, I say this again, the deal is here, the deal not only isn’t dead but it was unanimously endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, the deal is not dead, it needs to continue.”

“The United States are withdrawing but the deal exists, let’s be clear about this,” Le Drian said.

“I hope [the US withdrawal] not a setback for peace, in any case [French President] Emmanuel Macron offered [US] President [Donald] Trump a political initiative which is still on the table and which he didn’t reject in last night’s comments.

“We have to see now if, beyond the agreement, we can gather the actors around the table to allow for a perspective of stability in the region, which now risks being in a situation of confrontation soon if nothing is done.”

Le Drian said he believed that there was a real risk of war unless the deal was salvaged.

“There is a real risk of confrontation that is why it is preferable that the Iranians show restraint, that they take the time to assess what is happening, that they take time to speak with the Europeans, that we take the time to speak with all those involved,” he said.

Le Drian said France, like others, was well aware that there were concerns about issues beyond Iran’s nuclear capability, namely its ballistic weapons program, but said they could be addressed without ditching the nuclear deal.

Russian and German foreign ministers were also due to meet in Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said.

“Our aim is clear: We keep committed to the nuclear deal. For our own security concerns alone. And therefore, we will work for this treaty to have a future. It is the successful result of a long-term difficult diplomatic negotiations. And most of all: the deal is working,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said.

“It cannot be in the interest of Iran to jeopardize the path that we have chosen with that deal and the chances that have occurred to Iran because of it. And that is why we call on Iran to keep on acting responsibly and stick to the commitments under the deal,” Maas said.

“We will hold talks with all sides. And we will speak with one voice together with France and Great Britain,” Maas said.

In addition, he said, “We will look at the implications for European companies and how the Europeans can respond together,” Maas said.

“It is totally unclear what the US envisages as an alternative to the deal that prevents Iran from developing nuclear weapons while being able to verify compliance,” Maas added.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said the world should hold US President Donald Trump to his stated aim of finding a new solution to the Iranian nuclear threat.

Johnson, speaking to the British parliament, said it was now up to the United States to come forward with concrete proposals on Iran.

Trump’s new ambassador to Germany said German businesses should halt their activities in Iran immediately.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said the United States should not consider itself the world’s “economic policeman.”

European companies including carmaker PSA, plane manufacturer Airbus and engineering group Siemens said they were keeping a close eye on the situation.

Trump announced on Tuesday he would reimpose US economic sanctions on Iran to undermine what he called “a horrible, one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”

The 2015 agreement was the fruit of more than a decade of diplomacy, the pact was designed to prevent Iran obtaining a nuclear bomb.

Trump complained that the deal, the signature foreign policy achievement of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, did not address Iran’s ballistic missile program, its nuclear activities beyond 2025 or its role in conflicts in Yemen and Syria.

His decision raises the risk of deepening conflicts in the Middle East, puts the United States at odds with European diplomatic and business interests, and casts uncertainty over global oil supplies. Oil prices rose more than 2 percent on Wednesday, with Brent hitting a 3-1/2-year high.