Iran to Negotiate With Remaining Nuclear Deal Partners After US Pullout

FM: Need to see if remaining participants can ensure deal's terms

Jason Ditz 

Posted onMay 8, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsEU, Iran

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reiterated Tuesday that his country remains committed to the P5+1 nuclear deal, despite the US having withdrawn earlier in the day. He did, however, say that this was conditioned on the deal still offering the same benefits.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said he is spearheading a diplomatic effort with all the remaining signatories to the deal, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and China. Diplomats will attempt to see if those five can ensure that the terms of he nuclear deal are still in place without the US.

The European nations have all expressed “regret” at Trump withdrawing the US from the deal, and say they will remain in it. The US, however, is trying to stop European companies from doing business with Iran. Access to foreign markets is a key term of the deal from Iran’s perspective, even if the US never allowed direct access to most American companies.

What this boils down to for Iran is the question of whether the five remaining signatories will ensure Iran retains sanction relief from them, and the ability to do business with their companies. That’s still an open question, as the US is already trying to block some such commerce, and the overseas reaction is still uncertain.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is urging the remaining parties to all abide by the deal. He is urging all nations to keep issues unrelated to the deal from having an impact on implementation. This is clearly a knock on President Trump, whose argument for leaving the deal is wholly centered on objections unrelated to the nuclear deal.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/05/08/iran-to-negotiate-with-remaining-nuclear-deal-partners-after-us-pullout/