Om het internationale nucleaire akkoord met Iran overeind te houden, heeft de Europese Commissie woensdag twee maatregelen goedgekeurd die de Amerikaanse terugtrekking uit het akkoord moeten counteren. Ze moeten van kracht zijn tegen begin augustus, wanneer de Verenigde Staten opnieuw sancties tegen Iran willen invoeren.

Zo besloot de Commissie woensdag tot een uitbreiding van het blokkadestatuut. Dat mechanisme moet Europese bedrijven die zaken willen doen in Iran ertoe bewegen om de dreiging van Amerikaanse sancties te negeren. Dat kan in theorie onder meer door hen schadevergoeding te geven voor eventuele kosten en verliezen. Ook gaf de Commissie haar fiat voor de uitbreiding van het mandaat van de Europese Investeringsbank. Het geeft de bank een wettelijke basis om investeringen in Iran financieel te ondersteunen.

De lidstaten en het Europees Parlement hebben twee maanden tijd om bezwaar aan te tekenen. Gebeurt dat niet, dan worden de maatregelen begin augustus van kracht. Tegen dan zullen de VS opnieuw sancties invoeren tegen Iran. Het lijkt ook weinig waarschijnlijk dat er lidstaten bezwaar zullen aantekenen. Op een top in Sofia hadden de staatshoofden en regeringsleiders vorige maand al instemmend gereageerd op de voorstellen.

Het drie jaar oude nucleaire akkoord is op de helling komen te staan nadat president Donald Trump de eenzijdige terugtrekking van zijn land uit het akkoord en de herinvoering van sancties had aangekondigd. Het akkoord dwong Iran om af te zien van kernwapens, in ruil worden de economische sancties tegen het regime in Teheran afgebouwd. Iran eist nu garanties dat het de economische voordelen van het akkoord kan behouden. Europa wil zich daarvoor inspannen, op voorwaarde dat ook Iran zich aan zijn afspraken houdt.</s>BRUSSELS - The European Investment Bank has balked at an EU proposal to do business in Iran to help offset US sanctions and save the 2015 nuclear deal, EU sources told Reuters, under pressure from the United States - where the bank raises much of its funds.



The resistance from the European Union's lending arm underscores the limits of the bloc's ability to shield trade with Iran from the re-imposition of US sanctions after President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear accord last month.





European Commissioners are expected on Wednesday to endorse the EU executive's plan to encourage the EIB to support investments by European businesses in Iran, where the bank has never before done business.The move has symbolic value as EU officials see it as one of the easiest to deliver on in response to Iran's demands that it show proof of its commitment to the nuclear deal.A total of six EU diplomats, EU officials and sources at the bank said that within the EIB there are growing concerns that the Commission's plan would imperil its multi-billion-dollar funding program."The bank is unhappy with the Commission proposal because the bank raises funds on US markets," said one EU diplomat.As one of the world's largest borrowers, the EIB raised 56.4 billion euros ($66 billion) last year on international capital markets. The bank fears that the threat of US sanctions over Iran could scare off bond buyers.While Iran was added in March to a list of potentially eligible countries for EIB activity, any plan to upgrade that status needs the approval of EU governments and the European Parliament. The bloc wants the measure in place before Aug. 6, when US sanctions begin to take effect.Even then, it would be up to the bank's governors, made up of the finance ministers of the EU's 28 member states, to decide whether to seek an agreement with Tehran to engage there.The bank declined to comment on the Commission's plan."This would be an enabling measure, which would not oblige the EIB to take action," the Commission said in an emailed statement to Reuters.Despite its political mandate, sources say the plan throws up many hurdles.The bank currently steers clear, for instance, of engaging in jurisdictions listed as high-risk under the FATF, a global group of government anti-money-laundering agencies. That includes Iran.Roughly a third of its lending operation is dollar denominated, given the global reach of the US financial system.And while an EU budget guarantee partly shields the bank against losses outside the bloc, it would not address the funding risks."This isn't going to be easy," another EU diplomat said. "The bank is well aware of the dangers of US sanctions on its own operations."In back channels, Washington has also been lobbying the bank to object to the Commission's plan, two EU sources said."The United States is pushing pressure on the bank not to go ahead and invest in Iran, warning of the consequences," an EU official said.Trump abandoned the agreement between Tehran and six world powers on May 8, arguing that it did not rein in Iran's ballistic missile program or support for proxies in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon.The remaining parties are trying to keep the deal alive.Europe has focused on preserving the economic incentives for Iran to stick to the accord, which lifted international sanctions in return for Tehran curbing its nuclear program.In Tehran last month, Europe's Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said he had told Iranian officials the new EIB mandate and other measures to "neutralize bad news" turning public opinion in Iran against the deal would be fast tracked.Richard Nephew, a former administration official under then-US President Barack Obama, said that the US administration has many levers to discourage the bank from engaging in Iran even without imposing sanctions on the EIB itself.At a stretch, it could choose to pursue a new executive order prohibiting US persons from investing in the EIB while there is a reasonable risk of the bank evading US measures."Europe and the United States are so integrated that it is implausible that the Europeans will be able to use current institutions to engage in transactions with Iran," he said."If they really want to do this, then they'll need to set up siloed institutions that have no US exposure and then to protect those institutions with the threat of retaliation against the United States."</s>The European Investment Bank has “balked” at EU plans to work in Iran after coming under pressure from the United States, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The move comes ahead of a meeting on Wednesday at which European commissioners are expected to encourage the EIB to support investments by European businesses in Iran. The EIB has never done business in Iran before.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has previously called for “practical strides” to “increase [EU] investments in Iran,” if Europe wants to save the nuclear deal that was thrown into doubt when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew his support in early May.

“Under the current circumstances, the EU’s political will is not enough to preserve the nuclear deal,” Zarif said last month after meeting EU ministers in Brussels.

According to Reuters, asking the EIB to invest in Iran has “symbolic value as EU officials see it as one of the easiest to deliver on in response to Iran’s demands that it show proof of its commitment to the nuclear deal.”

However, “the bank is unhappy with the Commission proposal because the bank raises funds on U.S. markets,” according to Reuters.

Almost a third of EIB lending is dollar denominated, exposing the bank to potential U.S. sanctions, which will begin to take effect in August.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” an EU diplomat told Reuters, “the bank is well aware of the dangers of U.S. sanctions on its own operations.”

Read this next: Mariano Rajoy to stand down as conservative party leader</s>The European Investment Bank on Wednesday said it could not ignore US sanctions on Iran, rejecting the EU executive plan that it to do business there in an effort to save the 2015 nuclear deal. The pushback from the European Union’s own lending arm underscores the limits of the bloc’s ability to shield trade with Iran from the reimposition of US sanctions after President Donald Trump abandoned the nuclear accord last month.

Despite its political role in supporting EU policy, the EIB said it “could not be the solution to the problem” of a push by the remaining parties to keep alive their promise of sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear programme. “The EU bank is not the right tool,” an EIB spokesman told Reuters, saying its business model “would be incompatible with ignoring possible sanctions against Iran.”

The bank’s fears that its ability to raise funds on international capital markets would suffer echoes the calculation made by other European firms quitting Iran rather than risk penalties and access to the much vaster US market. But the comment, the EIB’s first since the EU executive proposed it engage in Iran last month, is a particularly hard blow coming not from a commercial bank but from an institution driven by EU policy.

European Commissioners earlier on Wednesday agreed to enable the bank to work in Iran, where it has never before done business, as part of its response to Iran’s demands that it show proof of its commitment to the nuclear deal. It is still up to the EU’s governing board – made up of the finance ministers of the bloc’s 28 nations – to decide whether to do so. As EU sources exclusively told Reuters on Tuesday, the EIB is under pressure from the United States – where the bank raises much of its funds – to stay away from activities in Iran.

The United States has warned European firms to steer clear of commerce with Iran once sanctions on transactions in dollars with Iranian firms kick in from August. The EU also announced on Wednesday it will activate its blocking statute, a never-before used measure that would order EU firms not to comply with US sanctions.

EU officials admit, however, that while the measure may help protect small to medium-size EU firms with little US exposure, it is not designed to help big global companies. The only hope for those firms to stay in the Islamic Republic, they say, is to seek waivers from Washington’s sanctions. Ministers from Germany, France and Britain wrote to senior U.S. officials this week singling out key areas where they expected exemptions for EU firms, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, energy, automotive, civil aviation, infrastructure and banking.

For all the latest World News, download Indian Express App</s>The European Union has updated legislation aimed at countering sanctions imposed by the United States on businesses operating in Iran as part of its pledge to uphold the nuclear deal after Washington pulled out.

The US announced its decision last month to exit the 2015 deal, which aims to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons in return for the lifting of sanctions that had stifled its economy.

Wednesday's development came as the EU and the other parties to the deal vowed to stick to the agreement if Iran continues to implement it.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, revised the so-called blocking statute - legislation that seeks to shield EU companies that continue doing business with Iran, and gives them a framework to recover any damages suffered as a result of US sanctions.

It also authorised the European Investment Bank (EIB) to finance Iranian projects, while noting it was up to the bank to give the go-ahead for any investments.

EU governments and members of the European Parliament now have a period of two months to object to the two measures; otherwise, they will come into effect in early August, which is when the first round of US sanctions against Iran will take effect.

However, the EIB on Wednesday said it could not ignore US sanctions on Iran, rejecting the EU executive plan that it to do business there in an effort to save the 2015 nuclear deal.

The pushback from the European Union's lending arm underscores the limits of the bloc's ability to shield trade with Iran from the reimposition of US sanctions.

Despite its political role in supporting EU policy, the EIB said it "could not be the solution to the problem" of a push by the remaining parties to keep alive their promise of sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on Tehran's nuclear programme.

"The EU bank is not the right tool," an EIB spokesman told Reuters news agency, saying its business model "would be incompatible with ignoring possible sanctions against Iran".



Germany, France and the United Kingdom also appealed to Washington not to punish European companies for doing business in Iran, in a letter sent to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, dated June 4.

They requested exemptions for EU companies that struck deals in Iran after the nuclear deal came into effect, and for key sectors such as energy, civil aviation and infrastructure, as well as exemptions to maintain financing channels with Iran, among other things.

Besides the EU and the US, the Iran nuclear deal was negotiated by Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. It was formally endorsed by the UN Security Council, incorporating it into international law.

Iran said on Wednesday it was in "preparatory works" to restart nuclear activities in the event of the failure of the 2015 accord.

In such a scenario, Iran could "restart its activities without any limits," Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Reza Najafi told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of its board in Vienna.

Iran is expected to top the agenda at the Group of Seven (G7) summit on Friday and Saturday in Canada, where seven of the world's most-developed countries will come together to discuss policy.</s>PARIS/WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS - US officials are touring the globe to pressure countries to shun trade with Iran following Washington's withdrawal from a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, a move that undermines European efforts to save the accord, sources said.



US State and Treasury Department officials have traveled to Japan and this week US diplomats are in eastern Europe as Britain, France and Germany scramble to save the 2015 pact and convince Iran that they can continue to do business with Tehran.





"The Americans are on a roadshow and going everywhere. They are dogmatic," said a senior European diplomat. "We were clear and told them: if you are coming to tell to us how to apply American laws here then you're not welcome," the diplomat said.Ministers from the three European nations and the EU foreign policy chief have written to US counterparts urging them to protect EU companies working in Iran from getting caught up in Washington's new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.In the June 4 letter, the foreign and finance ministers singled out areas where they expected exemptions for EU firms, including pharmaceuticals, healthcare, energy, automotive, civil aviation, infrastructure and banking.The letter appeared to accept that despite their efforts to circumvent secondary sanctions, the US action could prevent the EU from continuing "meaningful sanctions relief to Iran."The US roadshow suggests there is little appetite in Washington to compromise."We will hold those doing prohibited business in Iran to account," US Under Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker said in a blunt speech on Tuesday.A second EU official said the US was sending out such teams across the world with a private warning against doing business with Iran.Washington last month said it would impose new economic penalties after pulling out of the accord that world powers struck with Iran under which Tehran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in return for sanctions relief.One EU official said the United States had also pressed the European Investment Bank, which has never done business in Iran, not to invest in European firms doing business there, despite a European Commission proposal it start doing so.The European powers are trying to come up with a package to ring-fence trade with Iran against renewed US financial sanctions to dissuade Tehran from quitting the accord.But the global reach of the US financial system, forcing companies to choose between two irreconcilable options - selling to Iran or to the vast US market - is driving home the limits of European efforts to shield their revived trade with Tehran.According to two diplomats, Andrew Peek, deputy assistant secretary of state with responsibility for Iran and Iraq, was in the Czech Republic on Tuesday and Hungary on Wednesday."The State Department delegation to Europe seeks to garner support for our global effort to pressure Iran and to explain our sanctions policy," an US State Department official said."We are making stops to many countries and will expand our diplomatic outreach efforts worldwide in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, our engagement with the E3 (Britain, France, Germany) is on-going, including during this worldwide diplomatic engagement."Peek briefed senior EU diplomats in Washington in May and warned the bloc to cut investments in Iran, telling EU officials doing business with Tehran helped fund its missile program and support for proxies in Yemen and Syria, diplomats said.One diplomat said the focus on Eastern European nations might be designed to pressure those EU countries most dependent on US security assistance in the face of a resurgent Russia.However, another diplomat suggested the push could backfire."This escalation and strategy of confrontation is a serious mistake and risks provoking even more chaos and instability in the Middle East," said a diplomat aware of the roadshow, saying US efforts had begun to "irritate quite a few of its allies."</s>The European Union has taken action to try to prevent the collapse of the Iran nuclear deal, adopting a new rule banning European companies from complying with US sanctions and allowing the European Investment Bank to fund projects in Iran.

But it will leave many companies with a painful choice whether to follow EU or US rules on doing business with Iran.

The decision by the European Commission, the EU’s executive body, is provisional as it requires approval from the European Parliament and the heads of EU member states.

However, it is a strong signal of the EU’s desire to rescue the crumbling 2015 nuclear deal, a day after Tehran announced plans to increase its uranium enrichment capacity with new centrifuges.

"The European Union is fully committed to the continued, full and effective implementation of the [Iran nuclear deal] so long as Iran also respects its obligations," it said in a statement on Wednesday after a meeting of senior EU commissioners in Brussels.</s>BRUSSELS, June 6 (Reuters) - The European Investment Bank on Wednesday said it could not ignore potential U.S. sanctions on Iran after the EU executive urged it to do business there to help keep trade flows open and save the 2015 nuclear deal.

“A prerequisite for its business model is that the bank should remain a solid and credible institution on the international capital markets, and this would be incompatible with ignoring possible sanctions against Iran,” a spokesman for the bank told Reuters in an email.

“The EIB is a capital market based institution, and like all other similar bodies the bank cannot be the solution to this problem. The EU bank is not the right tool.”

It is the EIB’s first official comment on the European Commission’s enable the bank to work in Iran, where it has never before done business.

EU sources, however, say the European Union’s lending arm is reluctant to engage in Iran, under pressure from the United States - where the bank raises much of its funds. (Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel @AdeCar)</s>The European Investment Bank has ‘balked’ at EU plans to work in Iran after coming under pressure from the United States, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The move comes ahead of a meeting on Wednesday at which European commissioners are expected to encourage the EIB to support investments by European businesses in Iran. The EIB has never done business in Iran before.

Asking the EIB to invest in Iran has 'symbolic value as EU officials see it as one of the easiest to deliver on in response to Iran’s demands that it show proof of its commitment to the nuclear deal,” Reuters continued.

However, “the bank is unhappy with the Commission proposal because the bank raises funds on US markets,” according to Reuters.

Almost a third of EIB lending is dollar denominated, exposing the bank to potential US sanctions, which will begin to take effect in August.

“This isn’t going to be easy,” an EU diplomat told Reuters, “the bank is well aware of the dangers of U.S. sanctions on its own operations.”</s>Paris/Vienna/Brussels/Dubai: The European Union asked for exemptions from expected US sanctions on Iran and the bloc’s lending arm balked at supporting Iranian projects, signs of the mounting difficulties in meeting a political pledge to stick with the landmark nuclear deal after President Donald Trump quit the accord.

The troubles emerged as a senior Iranian envoy demanded results from EU negotiations “very soon” and said a failure to provide economic guarantees would result in the resumption of Tehran’s nuclear activities. That threat quickly drew warnings from the US.

France, Germany, Britain and the EU as a whole are seeking a sanctions reprieve from Washington a month after Trump withdrew from the nuclear pact and vowed to sanction companies doing business with Iran, which holds the world’s second-biggest natural gas reserves. The EU has pledged to defend the agreement, protect European companies negatively affected by the US decision and offer alternate financing for Iranian investments.

“As allies, we expect that the U.S. will refrain from taking action to harm Europe’s security interests,” the three countries and the EU said in a letter to the US administration. In it, they argued that the accord with Iran remains the best way to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran and that the 2015 accord can only survive if Tehran receives economic benefits in return.

“U.S. secondary sanctions could prevent the EU from continuing meaningful sanctions relief to Iran,” they said.

In a sign of internal EU conflict, the bloc’s executive arm proposed on Wednesday that the European Investment Bank expand its lending remit to cover Iran, a plan EIB president Werner Hoyer immediately rejected as being risky and unwise.

The European Commission idea to let the EIB support Iranian projects could hamper the lender because around 30% of its €500 billion ($589 billion) in outstanding debt is denominated in dollars, said Hoyer.

“With this lever, the U.S. administration might have the tool to threaten the business model of the bank,” Hoyer said by phone from Luxembourg, where the EIB is based. “We are a capital markets-based institution, which differentiates us from all other EU institutions.”

He said the bloc’s national governments, which own the EIB, will likely heed its advice against lending for Iranian projects and urged the bloc to come up with “more intelligent” ways to keep the nuclear accord intact.

“We are not the right tool,” said Hoyer, who called the Iran deal one of the EU’s “major and finest” diplomatic achievements.

The letter from the EU countries was sent on 4 June to treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and was posted on the Twitter account of French finance minister Bruno Le Maire.

“As close allies we expect that the extraterritorial effects of U.S. secondary sanctions will not be enforced on EU entities and individuals, and that the U.S. will thus respect our political decision and the good faith of economic operators within EU legal territory,” the letter said.

Even before the US pulled out of the JCPOA, many European companies faced problems financing their Iranian investments because major banks didn’t want to risk US ire by working in Iran.

Some companies aren’t waiting to find out. France’s PSA Group, the maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, said Monday it’s suspending its push into Iran, and has begun closing its joint ventures with Iranian carmakers. French energy companies Total SA and Engie SA have also said they’d stop some operations in Iran.

The window for the EU to convince Tehran to stay in the deal is quickly narrowing. Iran’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) ambassador, Reza Najafi, said on Wednesday in Vienna that he expects results from negotiations with the EU soon. The Persian Gulf country told inspectors they’re preparing uranium-enrichment feedstock and facilities to produce new centrifuges if the talks intended to save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action fail.

“They need to ensure that Iran is compensated unconditionally,” according to Najafi, who said Iran received “strong support from the overwhelming majority” of the 35 IAEA members meeting this week in the Austrian capital.

Until measures are worked out, IAEA inspectors shouldn’t count on any additional cooperation by Iran, Najafi said. The agency’s director general Yukiya Amano said on Monday that Tehran could do even more to facilitate verification, even after monitors called a record number of snap visits last year.

“As long as Iran isn’t benefiting from the deal, nobody should expect Iran to implement even more voluntary measures,” the envoy said. The IAEA reported for an 11th time this week that Iran has kept it’s side of the bargain by keeping its nuclear activities below allowable thresholds.

On Wednesday, Iran’s state television aired a live interview with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, from a centrifuge assembly center at the Natanz facility. Salehi, dressed in a white coat, spoke of Iran’s nuclear program and efforts to develop the technology as a pride-inducing project and an investment that had cost the nations some $6 billion over three decades.

Salehi said that his nation was working on developing the assembly center, which could if needed host newer, more efficient centrifuges. He reiterated that Iran would for the time being respect all limitations imposed by the nuclear accord. “We hope not to see a day’ when the nuclear deal falls apart, Salehi said.

Comments about boosting enrichment capacity prompted US secretary of state Mike Pompeo to issue a warning on Wednesday.

“We’re watching reports that #Iran plans to increase its enrichment capacity,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter. “We won’t allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon. Iran is aware of our resolve.”
The European Commission proposes to implement two measures by August, designed to counter the US exit from the agreement with Iran. These would extend the EU blocking statute and allow an extension of the European Investment Bank mandate.