EU rejects US demands on isolating Iran

Addressing a press conference following the Foreign Affairs Council, Mogherini said 28 EU member states have reviewed blocking US sanctions against European firms.

'We will consider all ways to continue cooperation with Iran,' she added.

'We are determined to preserve Iran Deal. We believe this is absolutely in our security interest. We believe it's in the security interest of the region and of the world,” Mogherini was quoted by European External Action Service (EEAS) as saying.

To a question whether Iran will be left to choose whether to accept to implement the agreement or not, she said, “The set of measures we have been putting in place both at the European Union level, at Member States' level and at third countries' level and that we have discussed in Vienna last 6 July seemed to be, to me but also to all of us including, I believe, the Iranian counterparts, an interesting set of measures that can allow us to guarantee that Iran continues to benefit from the economic benefits coming from the implementation of the agreement as it has always been foreseen by the agreement itself. So, I do not see this reply as bringing anything new to the work we are doing.”

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement.

Trump also said he would reinstate the US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose “the highest level” of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

Earlier Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in a Twitter message dismissed US unilateralism, saying the Iran nuclear deal is still a triumph of multilateral diplomacy.

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