Tehran, Iran, July 23
By A. Shirazi - Trend:
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the European Union has a time limit of 14 days to offer its package of “practical proposals” to save the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, also known as JCPOA.
“There is a deadline for the EU to offer its practical proposals and the date is August 6,” Araqchi said, ILNA news agency reported.
The package addresses various sectors, including oil, gas, and insurance and banking services, the benefits that we were supposed to receive from the JCPOA full implementation.
The senior official further noted that the first round of US sanctions would go into effect in August, followed by ones targeting Iran's oil exports in November.
“We are in talks with Europe to hammer out an executive mechanism for fulfilling EU’s commitments,” Araqchi said.
Last week, the bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the 28 countries were doing all they could to save the deal but conceded President Donald Trump's administration could still wreck it.
"Today, the (European) Council has endorsed the update of the blocking statute annex on the nuclear deal with Iran," Mogherini told reporters in Brussels at a meeting with EU foreign ministers.
She said the European Parliament gave its consent to the statute two weeks ago.
The "blocking statute" forbids EU firms from complying with US sanctions, allowing them to recover damages from such penalties and nullifying any foreign court rulings against them.
The EU vowed to fight to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after the US withdrawal, one of many points of US-European contention.
The blocking statute is due to enter force on August 6, when the first set of US sanctions are due. The second set is due November 4, just before US legislative elections.
The move came after the Trump administration rejected an EU call for an exemption from US sanctions on companies operating in Iran.