Tehran, Iran, April 30
By Ali Mustafayev, Kamyar Eghbalnejad – Trend:
Iran and Europe may support each other on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (nuclear deal) even in conditions of the possible withdrawal of the US from the agreement, Martin Roth, trade development manager and member of board of directors at the Iran-German trade chamber, told Trend.
“The situation in America is different from the years before, and reading the European media I feel that currently we help each other by ourselves. If we realize that we have to be more independent from all international activities, we see that there are a lot of opportunities for our cooperation,” said Roth.
He added that Europe and Iran can find stable ways of expanding bilateral cooperation independently from the present conditions in the regional and international political situation.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States - plus Germany (P5+1) signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.
Previously, US President Donald Trump said that the US may withdraw from the nuclear deal.
European officials have already held several talks with Tehran, Moscow and Washington as part of a drive to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald Trump is threatening to scuttle.
So far Iran has adhered to the terms of the nuclear deal, as verified by International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors in previous reports since the pact was implemented in January 2016.
But the economic benefits Iran is receiving in return have fallen short of expectations, even after energy and financial sanctions were lifted. Major banks and companies have avoided engaging with Iran from fear of running afoul of remaining US restrictions or seeing a "snapback" of sanctions given Trump’s threats.
Trump has told the Europeans that they must agree to "fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal" or he would re-impose the sanctions that Washington lifted as part of the pact.