Iran President to Discuss EU’s JCPOA Package in European Visit

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is set to discuss a package prepared by the European Union to save the Iran nuclear deal during his upcoming visit to Austria and Switzerland.

Iran’s Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Shariatmadari said the Iranian president will hold talks with European officials on the package in its upcoming trip to Europe.

“The EU package to support JCPOA is becoming operational,” Fars News Agency quoted him as saying on Saturday.

Rouhani is expected to visit Switzerland and Austria in coming weeks.

Shariatmadari’s remarks came after the IRIB News Agency quoted EU foreign policy chief as saying the European Union will very soon provide Iran with its support package aiming to encourage Tehran to remain in the nuclear deal, after Brussels ratified the plan on Friday.

“The EU has ratified the JCPOA support package with 28 affirmative votes,” IRIB News quoted Federica Mogherini as saying.

“The content of this supportive package will be submitted to Iranian officials within the next two days,” she said on the sidelines of a two-day summit of European leaders concluded on Friday.

According to IRIB’s report on Mogherini’s remarks, the only member state that opposed the plan was Bulgaria, which was finally convinced to join others.

IRIB claims the report had been originally published by the EU External Action Service’s website on Friday night, but was removed shortly afterwards.

The package was drafted by France, the UK and Germany, the three European parties to the 2015 nuclear accord, as part of their efforts to salvage the pact.

Based on the plan, the European Investment Bank is obliged to support European firms willing to enter Iranian markets.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had told the conservative faction of the parliament on Wednesday that Europe has just one more week to finalise their plan to keep the deal in place.

On March 8, US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the 2015 nuclear pact and threatened the US will impose “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Iran has announced the deal could remain in place only if European parties give Tehran binding guarantees that its interests will be served if it remains in the deal.

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