TEHRAN – Europe will have no choice but to comply with U.S. sanctions on Iran, according to Javier Solana, a former NATO secretary general and early advocate of the nuclear deal abandoned by President Donald Trump.

Solana, who was a long-time promoter of diplomacy with Iran as the European Union’s foreign envoy, said that the U.S.’s international financial clout means EU efforts to get around sanctions are doomed to fail, Bloomberg reported.

“I wish I could say yes,” Solana said when asked if European moves to circumvent sanctions will succeed. Rather, the U.S. Treasury’s ability to sanction transactions carried out in dollars effectively kills those plans, he added.

MH/PA