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This article is more than 1 year old

A potential confrontation between the US and Iran is brewing in the Strait of Hormuz after Tehran threatened to block the Gulf passageway in retaliation for Washington’s looming sanctions against Iranian oil exports – a threat the US military said would be immediately countered.



The Trump administration is demanding all countries end imports of Iranian oil by 4 November as part of its new policy of hostility towards Tehran after Washington’s unilateral exit from the 2015 nuclear agreement.



Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, responded during a rare visit to Europe this week by signalling that Tehran could disrupt regional crude shipments and cut its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog.



On Thursday the commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards, whose forces patrol the Strait of Hormuz – through which one-fifth of the world’s oil passes in tankers – said the Guards were ready to put Rouhani’s words into action if necessary.

Iran bans 1,300 imports as economic protest shuts shops in Tehran Read more

The US navy signalled it was ready to confront Tehran militarily in response.

Mohammad Ali Jafari, the Guards commander, was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying: “We will make the enemy understand that either everyone can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one.”

Bill Urban, a spokesman for US Central Command, said Washington and its allies provided security in the region and would not stand idly by. “Together, we stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows,” he said.

The threats will bring back memories of the latter years of the 1980s Iran-Iraq war, when US forces attacked Iranian territorial waters after a US ship struck an Iranian mine.

Rouhani returned to Tehran on Thursday after lobbying European leaders to deliver a robust rebuttal to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.



“The Americans have claimed they want to completely stop Iran’s oil exports. They don’t understand the meaning of this statement because it has no meaning for Iranian oil not to be exported while the region’s oil is exported,” Rouhani said this week in Switzerland.



“If you can do such a thing, do it and see the result,” Rouhani added in a threat that was lauded at home by the commander of the Quds force, Qassem Suleimani.

The fate of the nuclear deal is in the balance after Donald Trump pulled the US out of it in May before imposing new sanctions despite European resistance and Tehran’s adherence to the agreement, as verified multiple times by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).



Although the US initially demanded all countries end imports of Iranian oil in the autumn, it is likely to grant temporary exceptions to countries that rely heavily on Iranian crude such as China, India and Turkey.

Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said Iran did not view the nuclear agreement solely through the prism of an economic agreement, but also as a political and security deal. She said the Trump administration’s policy was not solely to exit the joint comprehensive plan of action (JCPOA) but also to make it impossible to sustain it.

Rouhani had two overarching messages during his visit to Europe, Geranmayeh said. “First, Iran expects more concrete action from all parties to the nuclear agreement to sustain economic channels. Second, sustaining oil exports and market share is a red line for Iran.

Ex-Nato chief refused visa waiver to US because of Iran trips Read more

“If Trump implements his threat to squeeze Iran’s oil exports, Tehran is prepared to escalate against the US to impose direct costs for global oil markets. This is a core issue of national security behind which there is growing backing from the political establishment.”

Despite the US’s withdrawal, the deal has not yet collapsed as Europe remains committed to salvaging it. Geranmayeh said Europe was expected to present a more concrete economic package to Iran during a ministerial meeting at the JCPOA’s joint commission on Friday.



Also at stake is Rouhani’s political career. The agreement is the moderate cleric’s main achievement in office, for which he was rewarded with a second term last year, but Trump’s antagonism towards Iran has empowered Rouhani’s hardline opponents at home, risking him becoming an early lame duck.



Trump’s hostility has compounded the country’s economic woes, while Iran is going through weeks of protests due to a currency crisis and environmental issues. Hardliners have started their onslaught on Rouhani, blaming his economic performance for the protests.

</s>Strait of Hormuz is for all or ‘no one’: Iran’s Guards

LONDON: The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday their forces were ready to implement Iran’s threat to block the Strait of Hormuz and that if Iran cannot sell its oil under the US pressure, no other regional country will be allowed to.

“We are hopeful that this plan expressed by our president will be implemented if needed . . . We will make the enemy understand that either all can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one,” Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency.

The US Navy stands ready to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce, a spokesman for the US military’s Central Command said on Thursday, after Iran warned it will block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

“The US and its partners provide, and promote security and stability in the region,” Central Command spokesman Navy Captain Bill Urban said in an email to Reuters. Asked what would be the US Naval Forces reaction if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz, he said: “Together, we stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows.”

A senior US military leader said in 2012 the Guards have the ability to block the Strait of Hormuz “for a period of time” but the United States would take action to reopen it in such an event.

In May, US President Donald Trump pulled out of a multinational deal under which sanctions on Iran were lifted in return for curbs to its nuclear programme. Washington has since told countries they must stop buying Iranian oil from Nov. 4 or face financial measures.</s>LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday their forces were ready to implement Iran's threat to block the Strait of Hormuz and that if Iran cannot sell its oil under the U.S. pressure, no other regional country will be allowed to.

"We are hopeful that this plan expressed by our president will be implemented if needed ... We will make the enemy understand that either all can use the Strait of Hormuz or no one," Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp, was quoted as saying by Tasnim news agency. (Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin Editing by Robin Pomeroy)</s>The Financial Action Task Force—an international group that monitors money laundering worldwide—avoided a decision to return Iran to its blacklist of countries not doing enough to combat money laundering. Iran’s continued litany of financial crime failings further undermines the future of the country’s nuclear deal with Western governments.

For some, the day Donald Trump was elected U.S. president sounded the death knell for the Iran nuclear deal (or the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, JCPOA, as it is formally known). For others, despite the bluster, posturing and quixotic legislative activity by European partners to keep the deal alive, the JCPOA died on 8 May, when President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the arrangement. But, for those who still believed that the JCPOA might be saved despite the actions and messaging of Trump and his administration, last Friday’s damning statement by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) almost certainly rendered its resuscitation beyond hope.

Since the JCPOA was implemented in January 2016 it has formed the basis for the gradual reintegration of Iran into the global economy. Trade and finance, previously suspended under a range of sanctions regimes aimed at reversing Iran’s nuclear ambitions, recommenced. Trusting in the survival of the deal, corporates made investments, manufacturers signed production deals and banks reconnected financial services. This economic re-engagement formed an important part of the JCPOA, stating as it does that ‘The United States will make best efforts in good faith to sustain this JCPOA and to prevent interference with the realisation of the full benefit by Iran of the sanctions lifting’.

Once he entered office in January 2017, President Trump continued to rail against the JCPOA. He failed to certify the deal in October 2017 and in May withdrew the U.S. from the deal, announcing that the U.S. would “begin reinstating …nuclear sanctions on the Iranian regime [and] will be instituting the highest level of economic sanction.”

For the European partners to the JCPOA, despite Trump’s obstinate attitude toward the deal, the U.S. withdrawal seemed to come as a surprise. Or at least the failure of European leaders to prepare for a U.S. withdrawal suggests that his actions were not anticipated and as such, there was no Plan B to hand. Believing that Iran has continued to comply with its obligations under the deal, the European Commission stated that it would take steps to “preserve the interests of European companies investing in Iran and demonstrate the E.U.’s commitment to the … JCPOA – the Iran nuclear deal.” Since the deal was signed, French exports to Iran—driven by the sale of aircraft and car parts—have doubled; exports of German goods to Iran have risen to €3 billion ($3.5 billion) with 10,000 companies trading with Iran.

Yet, as E.U. leaders made their statement, companies and financial institutions were already announcing their plans to discontinue engagement with Iran. European giants such as Total (gas), Maersk (shipping) and Peugeot (cars) have all made it clear that their commitment to the Iranian economy would lapse in the face of the threat posed by the return of U.S. sanctions. The rhetoric emanating from Trump and his administration makes it unlikely that the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. sanctions body, will issue the waivers and licences needed to protect companies that have re-established business connections with Iran.

The E.U. cannot, of course, throw in the towel in the face of Trump’s actions; the Iranians are pressuring Brussels to show leadership and commitment. The E.U. has updated the 1996 Blocking Regulation, which aims to remove, neutralize, block or otherwise counter the threat posed by the laws and regulations of a third country (E.U.-speak for non-member states) to the interests of the E.U., and its natural and legal persons.

In principle, this regulation provides protection against, and counteracts the effects of, the extra-territorial application of any law, such as secondary sanctions reimposed by the U.S. related to Iran. It also prohibits any E.U. national from complying with such regulations and approves the imposition of penalties by the home countries on any entity that does comply. But this regulation is untested. It will also make E.U. companies operating with Iran choose between being shut out of the U.S. financial system or being exposed to the well-known and considerable enforcement powers of U.S. authorities, and the lacklustre willingness of the E.U. to challenge the extra-territorial application of U.S. sanctioning powers. Most likely, those companies that are faced with this dilemma will take advantage of the Blocking Regulation’s provision for companies to seek exemptions should non-compliance with extra-territorial regulations threaten the company in question.

The letter sent to U.S. Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by France, Germany and the U.K. (the so-called E.U. 3 signatories to the JCPOA) underlined the powerless position of the E.U. in the face of reintroduced U.S. sanctions.

The war of words that has followed Trump’s announcement has been intense. French finance minister Bruno Le Maire questioned whether Europe wanted to be “a vassal that obeys and jumps to attention”; in return, U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell tweeted “advice” that “German companies doing business in Iran should wind down operations immediately” drawing fierce criticism.

But step back from the sound and fury of those defending and opposing the JCPOA, and see that there has always been another, less widely acknowledged or understood threat to the deal.

The Financial Action Task Force—the global standard setter and watchdog for anti-money laundering and counterterrorist finance (AML/CTF) standards—has long warned its members and their financial institutions of the risks of engaging with Iran. Iran, together with North Korea, has found itself black-listed by the FATF for many years.

As part of the spirit of cooperation encouraged by the JCPOA and Iran’s commitment to improve its standards, in June 2016 the FATF suspended countermeasures against the country.

At its subsequent meetings, the FATF has reconfirmed this suspension, despite noting as recently as February that Iran had a raft of material outstanding deficiencies. Iran’s leadership has reportedly suggested that it is not necessary to follow international conventions against money laundering and terrorism.

And so to last Friday and the latest announcement from the FATF that “Iran’s action plan has expired with a majority of the action items remaining incomplete.” In what must amount to a final warning, the FATF gave Iran until October to implement necessary reforms, otherwise it will decide upon ‘appropriate and necessary actions’; a return to the FATF blacklist.

The view of the FATF is critical. To the extent the FATF warns of material failings in a country’s AML/CTF regime, regulated financial services—the lifeblood of international trade and fund flows—are unlikely to support economic engagement.

The FATF has shown extraordinary patience with Iran. But international banks and companies assessing their future commitment to the JCPOA will be less patient. Whether or not it has black-listed Iran, the FATF’s latest statement, albeit short of issuing its ultimate sanction, provides support for those seeking to undermine the JCPOA and isolate Iran from the global economy once again.

This analysis first appeared on RUSI.org, the website of the Royal United Services Institute. Read the original article here.</s>Iran may close the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic from the Persian Gulf if the United States renews sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Reuters has reported, citing an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander.

“If they want to stop Iranian oil exports, we will not allow any oil shipment to pass through the Strait of Hormuz,” Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Sarallah military base, said.

Earlier, Tehran’s representative at OPEC Hussein Kazempur Ardebili warned that Washington’s effort to block Iranian oil exports would backfire forcing American citizens to pay the price for President Trump’s policy.

On May 8, President Donald Trump fulfilled an election campaign promise to pull out of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal agreed between Iran and world powers, that imposed strict curbs on Tehran's nuclear program in exchange for the loosening of economic sanctions.

President Trump promised to re-impose sanctions on Tehran and add new ones.

Washington also notified the world that companies doing business with Iran should wind down any deals with the country or they would be subject to sanctions as well.

READ MORE: Rouhani Expects EU to 'Fill In' for US in Iran Nuclear Deal

In order to protect its businesses, the European Union has vowed to fight back and warned it would revive “blocking regulations” that were originally created in 1996 to protect European companies doing business with Libya and Cuba from US sanctions.

The tactic proved effective at the time forcing the United States to back down from imposing sanctions.</s>Tehran will close the Strait of Hormuz, effectively blocking all the oil shipments from the Persian Gulf if Washington succeeds in its attempts to reduce Iranian oil exports, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander said.Esmail Kowsari, a deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards' Sarollah base in Tehran told the Iranian Young Journalists Club, which is linked to the national broadcaster controlled by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei."If Iran's oil exports are [stopped], we will not give permission for oil to be exported to the world through the Strait of Hormuz," Kowsari said, as cited by Bloomberg.The US and Iran have been trading veiled threats for quite some time now. On Wednesday, theSome international media then promptly attributed the remark to a possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz.A spokesman for US Central Command (Centcom), Captain Bill Urban, responded by saying thatThe latest escalation of tensions was actuallywho said on Monday that Washington's goal is toThe US has already been calling on its allies to stop importing Iranian oil by November 4, or face sanctions.The Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most strategically-important choke points, particularly when it comes to the oil trade. About 30 percent of all seaborne oil is transported through it. Iran threatened to block the strait on several occasions over the years but has never followed through with its threats yet.</s>Vienna regrets Washington’s decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran as these restrictions violate international law.

Austrian President, Alexander Van der Bellen, said on Wednesday that the restrictions also affect Austria due to their extraterritorial nature.

In May, President Donald Trump announced U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Under JCPOA, Iran kept its nuclear programme peaceful in exchange for the gradual lifting of international sanctions.

Washington plans to reintroduce all sanctions against Iran, including those targeting third parties that do business with the country, after its withdrawal.

“Austria regrets the U.S. pull-out from the JCPOA.

“We also regret the U.S. decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran.

“This does not concern the so-called primary sanctions against Iran, but the secondary sanctions, which affect Austria, too.

“We believe that these secondary sanctions violate international law due to their extraterritorial nature,’’ Mr Van der Bellen told newsmen after his talks with Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, in Vienna.

The Austrian president added the European Commission supports this position against the U.S. decisions related to the JCPOA.

Mr Rouhani is currently on his European trip aimed at discussing the future of the JCPOA, after the US withdrawal, with EU member states.

On Monday and Tuesday, the Iranian President visited Switzerland, after which he arrived in Austria.

EU officials have repeatedly criticised the extraterritorial nature of sanctions imposed by the U.S. on the countries considered by Washington as its adversaries.

After the U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA, other signatories, Iran, China, France, Russia, the UK, Germany and the EU said they would abide by it.

Moreover, EU leaders asked the U.S. to grant sanctions waivers to the bloc’s companies cooperating with Iran.</s>When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the US efforts to block all of Iran's crude oil exports, he neither mentioned the Strait of Hormuz, nor the actions Tehran could take to disrupt trade at the world's busiest oil transit chokepoint, which translates to 30 percent of seaborne global oil exports every day.

Rouhani's response was nonetheless interpreted as a threat to the narrow waterway located between Iran and Oman, where at least 18.5 million barrels of oil were transported every day in 2016, based on a US energy department report.

He had earlier complained that "it has no meaning for Iranian oil not be exported, while the region's oil is exported", adding in a defiant tone that the US "will never be able to cut Iran's oil revenues".

Before flying back from Europe to Tehran early on Thursday, the Iranian leader renewed his criticism of the US, saying its move to choke off Iranian oil "shows they have not thought about its consequences".

Ismali Kowsari, an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commander, was more blunt, telling Iran's Young Journalist Club on Wednesday that if Iranian oil exports are prevented, "We will not permit the shipment of oil through the Strait of Hormuz."

The US military quickly responded, vowing to keep the Gulf waterways open to oil tankers and "ensure the freedom of navigation ... wherever international law allows."

Iran experts said the latest exchange of words between Tehran and Washington highlights the brewing tensions between the two countries before the return of US sanctions, as well as the implications a disruption at the Strait of Hormuz could have on the global energy market.

Saeid Golkar, an Iran expert at the University of Tennessee in the US, said a threat by Iran to block the strait is "not a new thing", noting that the Islamic Republic's revolutionary guards had used the threat "to deter" the country's regional rivals, as well as the West.

Indeed, on many occasions from 2011 to 2016 Iran's Revolutionary Guards have threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, either in response to US and European sanctions of a total oil embargo against the country. The threats, however, were never carried out. A report by the journal Foreign Policy described them as "hollow threats".

"The IRGC has been prepared for this operation for decades," Golkar said referring to the military unit, which reports directly to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

"Rouhani using this threat is new, however," he noted, adding that it reflects the president's "frustration and hopelessness" over the impending return of US sanctions against Iran.

In an interview with Al Jazeera English television, Nader Hashimi, director for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, said US President Donald Trump's hardline approach has only forced Iran to make drastic counter threats.

"What we are seeing right now is a result of unilateral American sanctions," he said, referring to the US decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran.

"The United States has pursued this hardline policy and the Iranian leadership is starting to panic" and is pushing back, Hashimi added.

Golkar of the University of Tennessee, however, said that an Iranian threat to disrupt oil export in the Gulf could unsettle the energy prices, prompt countries like China and India to turn against the country, and "undermine Iran's foreign policy of looking to the East".

According to figures published by TankerTrackers.com, which monitors energy shipments at the Strait of Hormuz, Iran exported 560,000 barrels of crude oil and gas condensates to India and China in June 2018. That is followed by South Korea at 252,000 barrels a day and Japan at 206,000 barrels a day.

But it is not just Iran that will be affected by any disruption at the Strait of Hormuz.

For example, Qatar exports about 3.7 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) a year through the strait. That accounts for 30 percent of the global LNG supply annually, according to the Maritime Executive website.

As of Thursday, July 5, the OPEC price of crude is at $74.62 a barrel, while the price of LNG as of June 18, 2018, was pegged at $11.6 per million British thermal units.

For years, the Strait of Hormuz has witnessed incidents that have threatened regional security as well as affected prices of oil and gas.

In April 1988 for instance, US forces sank Iran's operational fleet just days after a US frigate was badly hit an Iranian mine off the coast of Qatar, according to the US Navy.

On July 3 of the same year, the US naval ship Vincennes fired two surface-to-air missiles on a civilian Iran Air flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai killing 290 people on board.

More recently, Iran's Revolutionary Guards detained US sailors when after their boats drifted into Iran's territorial waters in January 2016. The sailors were later released.

According to an Associated Press report in July 2017, the US Navy recorded 35 instances of "unsafe/or unprofessional" interactions with Iranian forces in 2016 and 23 similar incidents in 2015.

Given the nature of the Strait of Hormuz, the International Crisis Group, which monitors conflicts, warned that "rising tensions, incidents are almost unavoidable".

It urged Tehran and Washington, DC, to negotiate an Incident At Sea agreement to difuse tensions.

But with the US sanctions against Iran snapping back within months, the animosity between the two countries is only getting more intense. And it could be just a matter of time before the next spat erupts.</s>LONDON, July 5 (Reuters) - With a third of the world's sea-borne oil passing through it every day, the Strait of Hormuz is a strategic artery linking Middle East crude producers to key markets in Asia Pacific, Europe, North America and beyond.

This week, an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander threatened that Tehran will block oil shipments through the waterway in response to U.S. calls to ban all Iranian oil exports.

The Strait has been at the heart of regional tensions for decades and this is not first time that Tehran has made such threats.

WHAT IS IT?

* It is a waterway separating Iran and Oman, connecting the Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

* It is 21 miles wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is only two miles wide in either direction. WHY IT MATTERS?

* The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates a record 18.5 million barrels per day of sea-borne oil passed through it in 2016, a 9 percent increase on flows in 2015 which accounted for 30 pct of all sea-borne traded crude oil and other liquids during the year.

* Sea-borne crude and condensate flows transiting the Strait are estimated at around 17.2 million bpd in 2017 and around 17.4 million bpd in the first half of 2018, according to oil analytics firm Vortexa.

* Most of the crude exported from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iraq passes through it. It is also the route for nearly all the liquefied natural gas (LNG) from lead exporter Qatar.

* Throughout the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988) the two sides sought to disrupt each other's oil exports in what was known as the Tanker War.

* The U.S. Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, is tasked with protecting the commercial ships in the area.

* Energy consultants Petromatrix who track U.S. aircraft carriers in the region say there are currently no carriers in the Arabian Gulf. They add the carrier that could have made the short trip to the Gulf from the eastern Mediterranean, turned around to sail back to the Atlantic.

* "Under the Bush administration there was always one to two carriers in the Arab Gulf, under the Obama administration there were some short times when the Arabian Gulf was left with no carriers but that was gestures made while the U.S. was negotiating with Iran," the said on July 5 PIPELINE ALTERNATIVES

* The UAE and Saudi Arabia have sought to find alternatives to bypass the strait. The following EIA table shows those pipeline projects. INCIDENTS IN THE STRAIT

* In July 1988 the U.S. warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian airliner, killing all 290 on-board, in what Washington said was an accident after crew mistook the plane for a fighter. Tehran called it a deliberate attack. The U.S. said the Vincennes was in the area to protect neutral vessels against Iranian navy attacks.

* In early 2008 the United States said Iranian boats had threatened its warships after they approached three U.S. naval ships in the Strait.

* In June 2008, Revolutionary Guards commander-in-chief, Mohammad Ali Jafari, said Iran would impose controls on shipping in the Strait if it was attacked.

* In July 2010 a Japanese oil tanker called M Star was attacked in the Strait. A militant group called Abdullah Azzam Brigades, which is linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility.

* In January 2012, Iran threatened to block the Strait in retaliation for U.S. and European sanctions that targeted its oil revenues in an attempt to stop the nuclear program.

* In May 2015, Iranian ships fired shots at a Singapore-flagged tanker which it said damaged an Iranian oil platform, causing the vessel to flee, and seized a container ship in the Strait.

* On July 3, 2018, President Hassan Rouhani hinted Iran could disrupt oil flows through the Strait in response to U.S. calls to bring down Iran's oil exports to zero.

* The following day, a Revolutionary Guards commander spelled out that Iran would block all exports through the Strait if Iranian exports are stopped</s>Alwaght- Iran's Foreign Minister has warned that if the European countries fail to properly fulfill their commitments, Iran would take its own measures to counter the US withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the remarks while addressing reporters in the Austrian capital Vienna on Friday following a meeting with his counterparts from Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia for the first time since US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out from the nuclear accord, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in May.

Zarif said all the remaining signatories to a 2015 landmark nuclear agreement have political will to stand up to the United States' move to withdraw from the deal.

Zarif pointed to his "very serious and constructive" talks with the remaining parties of the nuclear deal and said, "I believe that there is political will to continue work and save this agreement but we must see what will happen to this issue in practice."

The top Iranian diplomat said the participants at the Vienna meeting agreed to take "good measures" to save the JCPOA.

The US president announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement and that he plans to reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA have agreed to continue talking, including on economic measures, over how to save the nuclear deal after the US withdrawal.

Mogherini, who chairs the Vienna talks, read a statement while speaking at a news conference after the first ministerial meeting between the remaining parties to the JCPOA since the United States withdrawal.

She added that the participants will work on the issues such as "the encouragement of further investments in Iran, the protection of economic operators for their investments and other commercial and financial activities in or in relation to Iran, the bringing together of private and public sector experts, the practical support for trade with and investment in Iran, the protection of companies from the extraterritorial effects of US sanctions."
Iran threatens to close the Strait of Hormuz to shipping if the U.S. re-applies sanctions to the country after the U.S withdrew from the JCPOA deal earlier in the year.