Several Foreign Ministers of the European Union on Monday signalled their resolve to keep the Iran nuclear deal intact after U.S. President Donald Trump cast doubt on U.S. support for the deal.
“The EU does not see any alternatives to the existing deal,’’ foreign ministers said at the sidelines of a meeting in Luxembourg, after Trump refused to certify the deal on Friday, throwing continued U.S. support for it into question.
However, EU foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini has said she is not considering alternatives.
“I’m not considering alternatives, we do not expect the deal to be finished, we expect the deal to be preserved, continued to be implemented by all sides.
“This is a strong European Union commitment,’’ Mogherini said.
While Trump’s announcement does not mean that the U.S. has withdrawn from the agreement, it is now up to the U.S. Congress to decide if sanctions on Iran will be reintroduced, which would put the deal at risk.
“We believe that it is wrong to destroy the agreement,’’ German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel noted.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that “an act of rupture would be extremely damaging.”
He noted, however, that there were issues that remained to be discussed with Iran such as its ballistic programme and the way the country behaves in regional issues. NAN
