Mogherini and Efforts to Preserve the Nuclear Agreement with the Islamic Republic

The astonishing remarks by Ms. Nathalie Tocci, senior advisor to Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, regarding "sanctioning European companies if they comply with U.S. secondary sanctions and refrain from continuing trade with Iran," are, on one hand, ideologically tinted and, on the other hand, indicative of the deadlock in the efforts made by the European Union's Security and Foreign Policy Commission to prevent the collapse of the nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic. The threatening statements made by Ms. Mogherini's senior advisor during her Monday night interview with BBC Radio 4, a widely listened political news channel, were broadcast live and rebroadcast on the global radio service, coinciding with the implementation of a new round of U.S. nuclear sanctions against Iran. Before resorting to "threatening" its own companies, the EU adopted three separate measures to circumvent the new U.S. sanctions: 1. Approval of allowing the European Investment Bank to interact with Iran in the EU Parliament 2. Announcing the implementation of blocking regulations (a tool to protect small and medium-sized European companies against U.S. sanctions) 3. Permitting direct monetary transactions between the central banks of European countries and the Central Bank of Iran. The EU's measures have remained ineffective in the face of increasing pressures from the Trump administration aimed at destabilizing the July 2015 nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic. The reciprocal efforts of the EU, primarily planned and directed by the Security and Foreign Policy Commission, have failed to yield results. European companies, mainly from large EU countries like Daimler Benz of Germany and Total of France, decided to leave the Iranian market despite the EU's announced policies, and European banks, including the European Investment Bank, disregarded the recent EU Parliament resolution and refrained from entering the Iranian market. The refusal of the German Central Bank to send $400 million in cash to Tehran after the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement symbolizes the failure of the EU's efforts to continue trade with Iran; a decision welcomed by the U.S. ambassador to Germany. According to a July report from the German newspaper Bild, Iran intended to transfer about $400 million in cash into the country using the Europe-Iran commercial bank in Hamburg, with the approval of the German central bank and government, to circumvent U.S. sanctions. Two and a half years ago, following the lifting of nuclear sanctions, the then U.S. government not only did not prevent the transfer of Iran's assets and their payment to the Islamic Republic, but also controversially transferred a shipment of cash amounting to $1.7 billion to Tehran via a special aircraft. The unprecedented threat to sanction European companies by the advisor to the EU's foreign policy chief occurred while Ms. Mogherini, a senior leftist diplomat of the EU, who faced criticism from European media for her veiled presence at Hassan Rouhani's inauguration, was in New Zealand. Earlier this week, after attending the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting, Ms. Mogherini reiterated the necessity of defending and preserving the nuclear agreement. The young senior diplomat of the EU, who previously served as Italy's foreign minister under the leftist Matteo Renzi government (the youngest Italian foreign minister since World War II), opposed European sanctions against Russia after the occupation of part of Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea by Russian forces. Ms. Mogherini graduated in political science from the University of Rome in 1994, and her thesis topic was "the intersection of politics and Islam" or, in other words, the study of "political Islam." Although Ms. Mogherini's background and academic interests should be considered unrelated to her political performance as the EU's senior diplomat, in an undeniable global trend, the Islamic Republic, as a revolutionary government, has received more support from leftist governments, media, and political figures than criticism. Ms. Mogherini joined the Italian Communist Party in 2001, which later changed its name to the Democrats of the Left after organizational changes. In the new party, Ms. Mogherini became the liaison between her party and the Democratic Party of the United States and, since 2003, served as the liaison between the party and Middle Eastern governments, including the Islamic Republic. Previously, Ms. Catherine Ashton, who was appointed by the then Labour government of the UK and was responsible for leading the EU's foreign policy, faced criticism for her leftist inclinations in advancing nuclear negotiations with the three major European countries and the Islamic Republic. The EU's Foreign Commission, in order to politically defend the nuclear agreement with the Islamic Republic, has now resorted to the option of threatening and sanctioning its own companies if they leave the Iranian market, an extraordinary phenomenon that has no precedent in the history of the EU's formation and the era of free trade dominance!