Global Geopolitical Series: EU strengthens determination to save JCPoA while Iran harshens rhetoric

As Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei called on the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to make preparations for enrichment of uranium up to a level of 190,000SWU without any delay and threatened to break away from the pact by returning to enrichment if a solution to the United States’ exit from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), better known as the Iran nuclear agreement with a solution to the looming sanctions by the United States couldn’t be found within two months. The leader was quoted in the local media as saying, “It seems from what they say that some European governments expect the Iranian nation to both put up with sanctions and give up its nuclear activities and continue to observe limitations [on its nuclear program]. I tell those governments that this bad dream will never come true”. Khamenei also demanded that the European Union needs to guarantee that Iranian oil barrels would be sold and money received.

Despite the harsh, toughened rhetoric, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Mogherini said that the announcement did not constitute a breach of the nuclear agreement, though she acknowledged that such decisions don’t contribute in building confidence in the nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) said earlier this week that the country has begun work to prepare the infrastructure for building advanced centrifuges at its Natanz enrichment facility, while respecting its commitments under the JCPOA and it has submitted a letter to the International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA) to inform on the start of certain activities.

In a further show of determination and in response to Iran’s timeline, the European Union has adopted an update of a law in the European Treaty that order the EU firms to not to comply with the U.S. sanctions. The European regulation, better known as the blocking statute, was originally created in 1996 to defend European businesses from US penalties for dealing with Cuba. However, the measure has never been used before. The commission released a statement saying that the measure has been activated with the intention to protect EU investments made in Iran after JCPoA came into effect in 2015. As part of the activation process the stature would be debated in the EU parliament for 2 months and if unopposed would go into effect in August, about the same time as a part of U.S. sanctions get re-imposed.