News / Interviews

Europe not willing to pay costs for JCPOA benefits: Analyst

Monday, 28 January 2019 4:00 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 28 January 2019 4:05 PM ]

Europe is not willing to pay the costs for the advantages it receives under the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), says a political analyst, adding that it is time the bloc carried out its obligations under the agreement.

“It is now 7 or 8 months that Europeans have been calling on Iranians to stop any decision on revising their policy with regard to the JCPOA in the hope that they would eventually make up for the losses and they would provide Iran with some mechanism to do free trade with the outside world, but as time is passing by the Europeans have been delaying in unveiling this mechanism … and also they have been continuously wearing off expectations and lowering expectations from this mechanism … what we see … here is that apparently Europeans are not really very much ready and willing to pay the costs for the merits that they receive under the JCPOA,” Mostafa Khoshcheshm told Press TV in an interview on Monday.

“So the Europeans seem to be now willing to receive even more concessions beyond the nuclear deal for something that is not even one percent of what they promised under the nuclear deal alongside the United States … it is now I believe the Europeans’ turn to show their goodwill, to show that they are eventually ready to pay some of the costs … and do parts of the undertakings that they have under the nuclear deal after such a long time,” he added.

Three European powers are set to announce plans to help companies trade with Iran under a mechanism known as the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) as early as Monday, Bloomberg reported.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that Iran has never limited its options to the SPV, but is still interested to see how the European Union delivers on its pledges.

The European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal – the UK, France and Germany – pledged to establish the SPV after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement in May 2018.