‘Europe Showed Weakness in Resisting US Pressure’

Foreign Ministry spokesman said Europe’s failure to finalize the Special Purpose Vehicle in time indicates the weakness of European signatories to the nuclear pact in resisting the US pressure.

Speaking in a regular press briefing on Monday, Bahram Qassemi said Europe has showed political will to protect JCPOA, but when it came to actions, they proved they can’t resist the US pressure and failed to honor their commitments in time.

“During the talks, some realities showed themselves. Issues such as complexity of the mechanism and the extreme pressure placed by the US on Europeans made the talks time-consuming,” he said, adding that the economic hegemony of the US was another factor at play.

However, Qassemi said Iran is not yet disappointed with Europe and is continuing talks with its European partners on SPV.

“We will continue negotiations and we hope Europe would pass this test, as Europe’s failure in resisting US pressure would lead to more pressure,” he said.

SPV is a mechanism aimed at facilitating trade with Iran at a time when the US has reinstated anti-Iran sanctions suspended under the nuclear accord.

Iranian officials for month have been lamenting about Europe’s delay in fulfilling commitments.

In November, Araqchi said the EU has shown unable or unwilling to establish the mechanism, warning Iran could not keep up fulfilling its JCPOA commitments in such circumstances

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