EU still struggling to save the European firms in face of the US sanctions

Tabnak – Three weeks after the US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran, the European Union is still struggling to find a way to protect the European firms against the American sanctions. However, some firms have already started to leave Iran, fearing of being sanctioned by Washington.

In this vein, Swiss bank Banque de Commerce et de Placements (BCP) on Tuesday became the latest firm to announce that it was winding down Iran-related activities while two Indian lenders were reported to have told their customers to wrap up Iran trade.

Earlier this month, the EU moved to ban European companies from complying with US sanctions on Iran and protect them from American court judgment. But Geneva-headquartered BCP said on Tuesday the bank complied with all US sanctions in force “and conducts its business accordingly,” Reuters reported.

BCP followed Germany’s No.2 lender DZ Bank which has said it would halt financial transactions with Iran in July. It also came after the Swiss firm Stadler Rail said it planned to ditch a $1.4 billion railway deal in Iran.

The Federation of Indian Exporters Organization (FIEO) also said IndusInd and UCO, the two banks facilitating exports to Iran, had set August 6 as the deadline for winding up deals.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas has said Berlin is prepared to help Iran improve its economy and business ties while Tehran remains committed to a landmark nuclear agreement it signed with major powers in 2015.

"We will continue to make efforts to fulfill Iran's hopes for economic recovery and good trade relations as long as Iran is ready and able to prove that it adheres to its obligations under the nuclear deal," Maas said on Tuesday. He was speaking at the Global Solutions Summit in Berlin.

On the other hand, speaking to reporters in Brussels on Monday ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the European Union's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said the bloc is determined to save the JCPOA despite the United States' move to withdraw from the deal.

She added, "You know that we have been acting already at European Union level to put in place a set of measures to make sure that the nuclear agreement is preserved and the economic investments from the European side, but also from other sides in the world are protected."

German EU Affairs Minister Michael Roth also said on Monday Iran's commitment to the JCPOA was "indispensable" and pledged that the EU would "support Iran financially and economically on the basis of the agreement."

US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.

Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.