On Monday 9 October, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini stated that preserving the nuclear programme agreement with Iran was an issue of responsibility. US President Donald Trump could, in the coming days, officially challenge the agreement by refusing to certify to the US Congress that Iran is applying the agreement correctly.
"We have an interest and a responsibility, a duty, to preserve the nuclear deal with Iran, and to work to strengthen, not to weaken, the global non-proliferation regime", she said in a video message broadcast at a conference in Rome on 60 years of the Euratom Treaty. "The deal with Iran has concluded one of the worst nuclear crises of our times. Now, as we face a different nuclear threat, from North Korea, we really cannot afford to open another front", she said, adding that it was important "to be extremely serious" about the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
Mogherini stated that the agreement on the Iranian nuclear programme showed "the power of international cooperation". "Through diplomacy and dialogue, we achieved a win-win solution, we set a milestone for non-proliferation, and we prevented a dangerous, devastating military escalation", she said. "We will preserve the deal with Iran", she insisted. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)