Germany: US Should Consider EU Interests on Iran Sanctions

Officials warn US sanctions violate international law

Jason Ditz 

Posted onAugust 8, 2018CategoriesNewsTagsEU, Germany, Iran, Trump

A number of German officials issued statements on Wednesday related to new US sanctions on Iran, saying they consider those sanctions to be in violation of international law, in that they are intended to have wholly extraterritorial effects.

Trump and Angela Merkel

Perhaps more significantly, the officials say they expect the Trump Administration, in crafting future sanctions, to take the interests of the European Union into account.This seems very unlikely, as the US clearly has focused the sanctions entirely of hostility toward Iran so far.

Indeed, in many cases the sanctions as they exist are directly harming EU companies, and the Trump Administration has been very direct in threatening to punish those companies if they do business with Iran, despite EU law making it clear they may legally do so.

Sanctions going forward are likely to continue that trend, with the US looking to cut off as much of Iran’s international commerce as possible, and having no problem harming European business interests in the process.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/08/08/germany-us-should-consider-eu-interests-on-iran-sanctions/