The European powers have been primarily pursuing the same policy toward the Iranian government since 2015. This could have severe repercussions for regional and global peace and security if the EU does not swiftly alter its strategy.
In 2015, in order to reach a nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, the European powers — France, Germany and the UK — changed their Iran policy from imposing pressure to adopting diplomacy. The diplomatic route included lifting oil and gas sanctions on Iran, as well as removing some Iranian individuals and entities from the sanctions list.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or nuclear deal, produced “the comprehensive lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions as well as multilateral and national sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program, including steps on access in areas of trade, technology, finance and energy.”
The EU immediately allowed transfers of funds between EU individuals and entities with Iran, allowed resumption of banking relationships between Iran’s banks and EU financial institutions, and provided financial support for trade with the Islamic Republic, along with financial assistance and concessional loans to the Iranian government.
Brussels also allowed the import and transport of Iranian oil, petroleum products, gas and petrochemical products, and permitted investment in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, as well as the export of gold, precious metals and diamonds.
The EU continued with this policy even though the Iranian regime was found to have violated the agreement. For example, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, revealed in its annual report a year after the nuclear deal that the Iranian government was pursuing a “clandestine” path to obtain illicit nuclear technology and equipment from German companies “at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level.”
The EU is still trying to revive the failed nuclear deal and continues to trade with the Islamic Republic.
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh
The agency also said that “it is safe to expect that Iran will continue its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives.” Even during the nuclear deal, the UN watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that the Islamic Republic had twice violated the agreement.
After the former Trump administration pulled the US out of the nuclear deal, the EU did not change its course. Instead, Germany, France and the UK doubled down on their policy. The three countries established a mechanism called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges, which was primarily created to skirt US sanctions. As Heiko Maas, Germany’s former foreign minister, pointed out: “We’re making clear that we didn’t just talk about keeping the nuclear deal with Iran alive, but now we’re creating a possibility to conduct business transactions.”
The Iranian authorities did not return the EU favor. Instead, they gradually reduced their compliance with the nuclear deal to a point where they violated all its terms and restrictions, according to the IAEA. Later, the Iranian government defiantly switched off several surveillance cameras installed by the agency.
Iran also enriched a substantial amount of uranium — up to 60 percent purity, a short step away from the 90 percent purity level required to build a nuclear weapon.
The EU’s soft approach to Iran remained intact even after France, Germany and the UK warned that Tehran’s latest action is “further reducing the time Iran would take to break out toward a first nuclear weapon and it is fueling distrust as to Iran’s intentions.”
The Islamic Republic recently said that it is capable of building a nuclear bomb. In a rare revelation, Kamal Kharrazi, a senior adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Al Jazeera TV: “In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60 percent and we can easily produce 90 percent enriched uranium. Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb, but there has been no decision by Iran to build one.”
In spite of these developments, the EU is still trying to revive the failed nuclear deal and continues to trade with the Islamic Republic. According to the Tehran Times, the value of trade between Iran and the EU reached €4.863 billion ($4.8 billion) in 2021, a 9 percent increase on the previous year. The Tehran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said than Iran exported €554 million of commodities to the bloc during the first nine months of the same year, while imports were valued at €2.7 billion.
In a nutshell, the failure of the EU’s policy toward Iran has become crystal clear, as the regime is closer than ever to becoming a nuclear-armed state. Brussels must swiftly alter its long-standing soft policy toward the Islamic Republic, or it will endanger regional and global peace and security.
