Iran has sent a list of demands to France, Germany and Britain as its price for staying in the nuclear accord, as tough U.S. moves on oil sales make European commitments increasingly urgent.
The statement on the official government website, dolat.ir, didn’t give details of the letters Iranian President Hassan Rouhani sent to French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Theresa May. But it said Rouhani decided to spell out Iran’s conditions for staying in the deal to his European partners, the statement said.
Iran and the five remaining parties are scrambling to salvage the accord after President Donald Trump announced last month that the U.S. was withdrawing and would reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Trump warned at the time that other nations would face sanctions unless they stopped trading with the Islamic Republic, and on Tuesday, the State Department said it is pressing allies to end all imports of Iranian oil – the country’s economic lifeline – by Nov. 4.
Iran has said if it cannot reap any economic benefits from remaining in the deal, which traded sanctions relief for curbing the Iranian nuclear program, then it would have little incentive to comply with its terms and would significantly ramp up uranium enrichment. The deal curtailed Iran’s enrichment activities because they can eventually be a key component of bombmaking. Iran has always maintained that as a policy, it would not pursue nuclear weapons.
The EU has pledged to defend the agreement, protect European companies hurt by the U.S. decision and offer alternative financing for Iranian investments. However, finding practical ways around U.S. sanctions has proved tricky – and grew more complicated with Trump’s hardball approach to oil sales – making it increasingly difficult for European partners to persuade Tehran to stay in the deal.
The Iranian president, a champion of the nuclear agreement, has come under increasing pressure from supporters who had thought it would deliver economic salvation, and from opponents who say the government has been ineffectual against the U.S. campaign to batter Iran’s economy.
One of the few tangible financial gains Iran has seen from the nuclear deal has been an increase in its oil exports. A dramatic reduction could pummel economic growth and deepen a foreign currency shortage. In a sign that Trump’s policies were already emptying people’s pockets, the Central Bank of Iran reported on Tuesday that consumer prices in June rose to their highest in three years, to 13.7 percent.
The economy, long hurt by international sanctions, mismanagement and corruption, has gone into a downward spiral over the unraveling of the nuclear deal, and protests against the country’s leaders have broken out in recent months. On Monday, gold and jewelry traders shut down Tehran’s Grand Bazaar to protest rising prices and poor business. Golnar Motevalli, Arsalan Shahla, Bloomberg
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