Zarif: US Bullies Europe, EU Only Regrets

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the European Union should stop submitting to Washington’s dictations concerning Tehran instead of just expressing “regret” over the US’s anti-Iran policy.

“EU statement today is why JCPOA is where it is: the US has bullied Europe—and rest of world—for a year and EU can only express ‘regret',” Zarif tweeted on Thursday.

He was referring to the nuclear deal signed between Iran and then P5+1 group of countries in July 2015, which is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The EU directed the negotiations that led to the agreement’s conclusion in 2015.

On Thursday, EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the UK released a joint statement, saying, “We regret the re-imposition of sanctions by the United States following their withdrawal from the JCPOA” and said they would stay fully committed to “the preservation and full implementation” of the JCPOA, which they described as “a key achievement of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture, which is in the security interest of all.”

The US returned the sanctions last year after unilaterally leaving a multi-party nuclear deal with Iran.

Zarif also criticized the European Union's approach to US's anti-Iran policy, saying that the bloc was demanding that Tehran unilaterally abide by a multilateral accord, which has already been abrogated by Washington.