Europe shows no sign of bending to the US demands on Iran

Tabnak – While the United States is increasing pressures on its European allies to cut ties with the Islamic Republic, major European powers show no signs of bending to Washington’s demands. While Germany talks of the need to establish an independent payment system to deal with Iran, the UK is to take Washington’s place in redesigning a heavy water reactor in Iran.

President Donald Trump's hawkish national security adviser said on Tuesday that the Europeans have to make a choice between the US and Iran in observing American sanctions which he claims have been more effective than expected.

“We expect that Europeans will see, as businesses all over Europe are seeing, that the choice between doing business with Iran or doing business with the United States is very clear to them," National Security Adviser John Bolton said.

Bolton boasted that the sanctions are “already having a significant effect on Iran's economy,” but admitted that they have not led to any change in the country’s policies.

“I think the effects, the economic effects certainly, are even stronger than we anticipated," he said. "But Iranian activity in the region has continued to be belligerent,” he added, citing Iran’s role in Iraq, Syria and the Persian Gulf.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas says European countries need to adopt payment systems independent of the United States if they seek to keep the historic nuclear deal signed with Iran alive after Washington's withdrawal from it.

In his statement written in the Handelsblatt business daily, the German foreign minister added that it was "right to legally protect European companies from sanctions."

"That's why it is indispensable that we strengthen European autonomy by creating payment channels that are independent of the United States, a European Monetary Fund and an independent SWIFT system," Mass said in the article to be published on Wednesday.

On the other hand, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says the US has been replaced with the UK in a working group tasked with redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor in central Iran.

“With the unilateral US withdrawal from the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), Britain replaced the US in the group tasked with redesigning the Arak heavy water reactor," Ali Akbar Salehi told IRIB on Wednesday.

Salehi said the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal has not impacted Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities, adding that the country's nuclear projects "are progressing well and there is no problem."

The United States has ramped up pressure on Iran after US President Donald Trump withdrew Washington in May from the landmark nuclear agreement, reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015, and decided to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Tehran.

In defiance of warnings from the European Union, the JCPOA signatories and many international players, President Trump signed an executive order on August 6 re-imposing a first round of sanctions on Iran, which were lifted under the nuclear deal, to levy "maximum economic pressure" on the Islamic Republic.