With the European Union, France, Britain and Germany persistently seeking to reach understandings with the United States on preserving the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran; Washington emphasized its resolve on scraping the deal, a move aimed at preventing – not only the Iranian aspiration to acquire nuclear weapons- but also to thwart the Islamic Republic’s destabilizing activities across the Middle East in particular, and around the world in general. During a press briefing at the state department in Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo emphasized that the changes the Trump Administration has demanded are not necessarily difficult to implement, elevating his confidence of possibly developing of a common diplomatic approach on the Iranian threat with America’s European allies. “This is a shared threat across the world. And I am confident that we can collectively develop a diplomatic response that achieves the simple outcomes that we put forward.” / “So, I am confident that there is a shared set of overlapping values and interests here that will drive us to the same conclusion about the need to respond to the Islamic Republic Iran’s threat to the world,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said.
The American top diplomat further asserted that Washington’s actions are intended to thwart the Iranian regime’s malign activities, which have alienated Iran from the league of nations. Pompeo emphasized that while the Iranian people suffer from the consequences of the regime, they have the responsibility to choose for themselves “the kind of leadership they want,” and ultimately will have to live with the consequences of their choices. “The Iranian people get to choose. The Iranian people get to choose for themselves the kind of leadership they want, the kind of government that they want. They get to choose the individuals who lead their country and then they get to live with the choices that those leaders make,” Pompeo said.
Even though Europe declared its support for the multinational agreement, the Islamic Republic of Iran announced that support of the EU is not enough. Iran’s Foreign Ministry released a statement in which it stressed that Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear agreement means Tehran doesn’t have enough benefits to uphold their side of the deal, even with the remaining European powers still on board. The Iranian statement came after major European corporations, including Airbus and Maersk shipping lines, have signaled they would cut ties with the Islamic Republic in face of American sanctions – that even though the European Union said it considers legislating new laws that will protect European companies from caving to American penalties, effectively bypassing the U.S. financial system.