Zarif Raps Europe for Selling Integrity to Appease Trump

TEHRAN (defapress)- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif lashed out at the European states for making a deal on their integrity with US President Donald Trump.

News ID: 79909

Date: 16 January 2020 - 21:53

Zarif wrote on his twitter page on Thursday that the European signatories to a 2015 nuclear deal- France, Britain and Germany- chose to bow to American bullying and sell out the “remnants” of the multilateral agreement only to appease the US and avoid its sanctions.

"Appeasement confirmed. E3 sold out remnants of JCPOA to avoid new Trump tariffs. It won't work my friends. You only whet his appetite. Remember your high school bully?," he said.

"If you want to sell your integrity, go ahead. But do not assume high moral/legal ground. You don’t have it," Zarif stressed.

Zarif made the remarks in a tweet on Thursday after the Washington Post reported that the administration of Trump had threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on European automobile imports if the trio — known as EU3 or E3 — refused to formally accuse Iran of violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The report was published shortly after the European trio said in a joint statement on Tuesday that they had triggered the JCPOA’s dispute mechanism, which amounts to a formal accusation that Tehran had broken the terms of the deal.

The European measure could lead to the restoration of anti-Iran UN sanctions, which had been lifted by the JCPOA.

In relevant remarks on Wednesday, Zarif lashed out at the 3 European signatories of the nuclear deal — the UK, France and Germany—for abiding by unilateral pressures of the US, underlining that the trio’s Tuesday unconstructive move was a strategic blunder.

Zarif denounced as a “strategic mistake” the European trio’s decision to trigger a dispute mechanism under the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The top diplomat criticized the European signatories to the landmark deal once again on Tuesday for failing to abide by their commitments under the JCPOA and said triggering a dispute resolution mechanism is legally baseless and politically a strategic blunder.

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