TEHRAN - Deputy Chairman of Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Kamal Dehghani Firouzabadi has said that Europe has not stood against the U.S. violations.

“The European countries have said they will remain in the JCPOA [the 2015 nuclear deal, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]. However, more important than that is to ask them what they have done to counter the U.S. illegal actions? Are they afraid? Are they weak and dependent?” he told ISNA in an interview published on Wednesday.

He added, “Trump [U.S. President Donald Trump] believes in unilateralism in the international relations and has created a whirlpool which hurts credibility of the U.S. and some of its allies.”

U.S. President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled Washington out of the nuclear deal in May 2018 and ordered reimposition of sanctions against Iran. The first round of sanctions went into force on August 6 and the second round, which targets Iran’s oil exports and banks, were snapped back on November 4.

Also, on April 22 the U.S. announced that Washington has decided not to extend waivers allowing major importers to continue buying oil from Iran. The waivers ended on May 2.

On January 31, France, Germany and Britain announced the creation of INSTEX, a special purpose vehicle aimed at facilitating legitimate trade between European economic operators and Iran. 

On March 20, Iran’s central bank governor Abdolnaser Hemmati announced that a mechanism similar to INSTEX has been registered in Iran, officially called the Special Trade and Finance Institute (STFI).

During a meeting with a group of Austrian MPs in Tehran on April 29, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi criticized European delay in implementing its special mechanism to save the JCPOA.

Speaking at the 9th round of Iran-Norway political consultations on April 30, Araqchi said the international community has not responded properly to the U.S. illegal act in withdrawing from the JCPOA.

“The U.S. proved that it does not understand language of respect and interaction and can just talk with language of bullying,” he said.

On May 8, Iran officially announced that it stops selling stockpiles of enriched uranium and heavy water for 60 days. However, Iran warned if a conclusion is not reached in this time period, it will take other measures step by step and will accelerate its uranium enrichment activities.

In an interview with Le Monde published on Monday, Kamal Kharrazi, chief of the Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said that Iran seeks to preserve nuclear deal.

“We believe that the European countries have not kept their promises, and we give them two months to do it,” he said.

In an interview with ISNA published on Tuesday, Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that the Europeans should abide by their obligations under the JCPOA.

He said that Iran has fulfilled its obligations and Europe should do the same.

NA