On Tuesday 18 June, a European diplomat expressed his concerns about the impact of US sanctions on the daily lives of Iranians and, in particular, on humanitarian aid.
“By comparison with the situation when sanctions were in force previously, there is currently no operational US channel for humanitarian trade”, the diplomat lamented in front of a small group of journalists after a dispute between the State Department and the US Treasury.
According to him, without this channel, operators are showing “a lot of caution”. Organisations would have difficulty obtaining exemptions to continue working in Iran. “Many NGOs operating in this field feel themselves at risk. One NGO already received very heavy fines”, the diplomat explained, without giving any further details.
According to this diplomat, the situation is critical. “Iranians are really in need of medicines”, he said. The cost of food and medicines has risen by 40% to 60% in recent months, according to EU figures.
The Instex mechanism, created by the Europeans, must in particular allow trade linked to humanitarian aid and health (see EUROPE 12184/1), but in the absence of an Iranian mirror entity that meets the standards of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Instex is not yet operational to date.
In addition, the diplomat confirmed that the Joint Commission of the Joint Action Plan (JCPOA) would meet “within the next 10 days at the level of political directors”. This meeting had been announced the day before by the Russian Ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, who had mentioned a meeting of the Joint Commission “in the coming days and weeks”. Iran warned earlier this week that its reserves of enriched uranium would exceed the limit set by the nuclear agreement as of 27 June.
During a visit to Washington on 19 June, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Federica Mogherini, held talks with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, including on the JCPOA. Ms Mogherini reaffirmed the EU's commitment to the nuclear agreement as an important element in “preserving stability and security in the region and as an essential component of the global non-proliferation architecture”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant, with Martin Molko and Damien Genicot)