EU Ministers Due To Meet Monday, Amid Gloom-Shrouded Ties With Iran

(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) Analysis By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, Nov 13 (KUNA) -- European Union Foreign Ministers are scheduled to hold a formal meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss a host of issues most notably imposing further sanctions on Iran, amid record deterioration in the relations between the two sides.
Such a step, imposing more sanctions on Tehran if taken in tomorrow's meeting, will certainly add more thorns to the strained relations with Iran, poisoned due to disagreements on diverse topics namely the nuclear dossiers.
Despite the euphoria over the 'historic deal' reached between six world powers and Iran and facilitated by the European Union, years back, European-Iranian relations will remain tense. That's because overcoming the nuclear stumbling block still leaves a number of other contentious issues, such as Iran's attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its domestic human rights situation,' commented Cornelius Adebahr, an analyst in the Brussels-based Carnegie Europe think tank.
When the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name of the Iran nuclear deal, was signed in Vienna on July 14, 2015, after a decade of negotiations, both the European Union and Iran hailed it as a new chapter of hope.
'I think this is a sign of hope for the entire world and we all know this is very much needed in this time,' former EU High Representative Federica Mogherini who had led the negotiations on behalf of the West had then said in a euphoric mood at the time.
'We delivered on what the world was hoping for: a shared commitment to peace and a joint effort to make the world a safer place,' she had said, noting that Iran had promised that 'under no circumstances' would it try to obtain or make nuclear weapons.
Ex-Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also hailed the agreement with the US, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany saying 'we are starting a new chapter of hope.' 'We are reaching an agreement that is not perfect for anybody but it is what we could accomplish and it is an important achievement for all of us,' he had then said.
The Iranian President at that time, Hassan Rouhani, said that the deal would open 'new horizons and victory of diplomacy.'
But the jubilant exclamations of those days have been replaced today by a low ebb and general gloom in relations between the 27-member western bloc and the Islamic Republic related with the war in Ukraine and demonstrations in Iran.
The European Union recently imposed more sanctions on Iran for violating human rights and for supplying drones to Russia and is openly supporting the ongoing demonstrations in Iran.
EU High Representative Josep Borrell last week said he has been talking with the Foreign Minister of Iran Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and expressed 'the condemnation of the European Union for the crackdown of demonstrators following the killing of Mahsa Amini.'
'The European Union has taken actions and approved sanctions, also for the issue of Iran delivering drones to be used in the war in Ukraine, which is a violation of the United Nations resolution,' he said.
The EU foreign policy chief stressed that 'we will continue supporting the demonstrators' in Iran. Regarding the JCPOA, Borrell said 'things are not evolving in the right direction. Positions between the parties are not converging yet.'
Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn told the parliament in his country last week that 'there is no possibility of resuming talks on the JCPOA nuclear agreement, let alone bringing them to a conclusion.'
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz strongly criticized the Iranian government for its crackdown on protests in the country and said Germany stands 'shoulder to shoulder with the Iranian people.'
Scholz said the ongoing protests sparked by the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini following her detention by Iran's morality police were no longer 'merely a question of dress codes' but had evolved into a fight for freedom and justice.
On his s part, Amir Abdollahian criticized Germany's comments endorsing the demonstrations in Iran as a clear example of interference in the Islamic Republic's internal affairs and issued a warning that Tehran will respond to such interventionist views with a 'proportionate and firm' response.
Moreover, Iran's Foreign Ministry announced in October its own sanctions on a number of members of the European Parliament and other European individuals and entities for 'inciting violence and supporting violent riots that served as a pretext for the West to impose new coercive measures against the nation.'
JCPOA in 2018 suffered a big blow when the US administration under Donald Trump withdrew from the deal .
Trump called the JCPOA as 'the worst deal ever,' and argued that it is not permanent and would allow Iran to resume enriching some uranium after a decade and lift other restrictions after that.
Any seasoned observer would have realized that once the US pulled out from the Iran nuclear deal it was a dead duck as the remaining parties were in no position to revive it.
JCPOA was agreed only after the US joined the negotiations and hence it is clear that once Washington left, the Iran nuclear deal would slowly fall into oblivion.
Talks to revive the deal began in Vienna, Austria, in April 2021 with the participation of the remaining parties, France, Germany, the UK, Russia, and China, as well as the European Union which is acting as the coordinator. The US was involved indirectly.
But after eight rounds of unsuccessful talks, negotiations were paused last March and analysts see little chance of any breakthrough under the current circumstances .
Despite the euphoria over the 'historic deal' reached between the six world powers and Iran and facilitated by the European Union, European-Iranian relations will remain tense. That's because overcoming the nuclear stumbling block still leaves a number of other contentious issues, such as Iran's attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its domestic human rights situation,' commented Cornelius Adebahr, an analyst in the Brussels-based Carnegie Europe think tank. (end)
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