EU acts to protect firms from Donald Trump's sanctions against Iran
"Amid the chaos of Syria, will Israel and Iran launch an all-out war?"
Companies told to ignore White House demands to drop all business with Iran
Daniel Boffey in Brussels, Sabrina Siddiqui in Washington and Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Mon 6 Aug 2018 12.39 EDT Last modified on Tue 7 Aug 2018 04.34 EDT
A Tehran man looks at a newspaper with the US president, Donald Trump, on the front page. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images
The EU has launched an attempt to protect European businesses from Donald Trump’s sanctions against Iran .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/iran .. as the US administration voiced its intent to apply maximum pressure on Tehran by vigorously applying its punitive measures.
The sanctions came into force at midnight .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/aug/07/iran-braces-for-new-round-of-us-economic-sanctions .. (US east coast time). At the same time, a blocking statute – last used to protect EU firms from US sanctions against Cuba – was brought into force in an attempt to insulate firms and keep alive a deal designed to limit the Iranian government’s nuclear aspirations.
European firms have been instructed that they should not comply with demands from the White House for them to drop all business with Iran. Those who decide to pull out because of US sanctions will need to be granted authorisation from the European commission, without which they face the risk of being sued by EU member states.
A mechanism has also been opened to allow EU businesses affected by the sanctions to sue the US administration in the national courts of member states.
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Staff and agencies
Tue 31 Jul 2018 05.14 EDT First published on Mon 30 Jul 2018 22.25 EDT
Donald Trump previously warned the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, to ‘never ever threaten the United States again’. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
President Rouhani dismisses move by Donald Trump as ‘psychological warfare’
Saeed Kamali Dehghan Iran correspondent @SaeedKD
Tue 7 Aug 2018 02.35 EDT First published on Tue 7 Aug 2018 00.00 EDT
[...]
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on Monday that enemies were pulling out all the stops to target “Iran’s existence”, pledging that his country “will overcome this period of hardship”.
Rouhani’s administration is scrambling to mitigate the impact of sanctions and their effect on the plummeting value of the national currency by easing foreign exchange rules.
Homeira, a 31-year-old graduate of management living in Chalus, in northern Iran, said: “You can’t describe the scale of the crisis the country is facing.
“Life goes on, but how it goes on is the issue. Inflation and currency depreciation has made life so costly – it’s as if you have to pay even for the oxygen you’re breathing. But worse than all of this is you don’t have a right to say anything in protest. A lot of people think there should be another revolution, but I believe another revolution will make things worse. We need to fix the current situation.”
A carpet seller at a bazaar in Tehran. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Ehsan, who sells vehicle parts in Karaj, a city west of Tehran that has been the focal point of recent protests, said: “The situation is dreadful. In a country that is sitting on oil, copper, gold, gas, people are left without electricity and water for four hours per day.”
At least one person is reported to have been killed during clashes between protesters and security guards in Karaj in the past week.
Mohammad Eslami, 34, the international director of Shenasa Venture Capital, said fluctuations in the exchange rate had made it “really hard to have an investment plan” in the country.
Eslami said ordinary people’s purchasing power was likely to decrease still further under sanctions. “It will make life harder,” he predicted. The US sanctions will pose a challenge for Rouhani and other moderate politicians, Eslami said.
“If the Rouhani administration shows a real will to defeat corruption, increase transparency, and restructuring the economy, they will turn the threat into an opportunity.”
Internally, many prominent Iranians believe the pressure from the US is mainly intended to provoke regime change. The reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, one of the most popular politicians inside Iran but who is currently sidelined, was quoted by local media as saying that efforts to engineer regime change would prove futile so long as people believed in reform.
Khatami has set out 15 suggestions to Iranian leaders to bring the country out of the political deadlock. His suggestions include the release of all political prisoners, and establishment of a free atmosphere for political activities.
Some names have been changed to protect identities.
In the months prior to Trump’s announcement, TRIP polled 1,541 scholars and asked them a simple question: Would you approve of Trump’s policy to “withdraw US support from [the] Iran nuclear weapons agreement?” The result was clear: An incredibly high majority disapprove of Trump’s decision.
You might think this is just liberal academics being liberal. But international relations is a field with a long history of bitter internal debate on public policy, one that’s been deeply divided over everything from the Cold War to the Iraq War. This isn’t an echo chamber.
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