The German, French and British Foreign Ministries expressed their disappointment on Saturday 12 March that the EU coordinator had to take a break in the Vienna negotiation process (see EUROPE 12909/27).
“The agreement on the return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) now on the table can and should be concluded with the utmost urgency”, they said in a statement.
While Russia would like to see the new agreement accompanied by US guarantees that the sanctions imposed on it will not apply to Russian trade or investment with Iran, “no one should seek to exploit the negotiations on the return to the JCPOA in order to obtain guarantees that have nothing to do with the agreement. This risks leading to the collapse of the agreement, depriving the Iranian people of a lifting of sanctions and the international community of the necessary assurances regarding Iran’s nuclear programme”, the three Ministers warned.
On Sunday 13 March, the spokesman for the European External Action Service condemned the attack on Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan) by 12 ballistic missiles, claimed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of Iran. “There is no justification for such an act of violence against the territory of a sovereign country”, the spokesman said, adding that the EU will continue to support Iraq’s sovereignty and stability. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)