Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Iran deal complicates EU-Israel relations

  • Netanyahu: 'Iran will receive hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine' (Photo: eeas.europa.eu)

EU and US leaders have said the Iran deal paves the way for broad co-operation with the Islamic Republic, widening their differences with the Israeli government.

EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini, who chaired the final stages of talks in Vienna, said on Tuesday (14 July), the accord “will ensure that Iran’s nuclear programme will be exclusively peaceful” and that it creates “conditions for building trust and opening a new chapter in our relationship”.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

Also speaking on behalf of the 28 EU member states, Council chief Donald Tusk noted: “The agreement could be a turning point in relations between Iran … paving the way to new avenues of co-operation”.

The statements were echoed by individual leaders, commissioners, and MEPs.

German chancellor Angela Merkel called the accord a “substantial gain” for peace in the Middle East and an “important success” for international diplomacy.

France’s Francois Hollande warned: “Now that Iran will have bigger financial capabilities, as there will no longer be sanctions, we must be extremely vigilant.”

But his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, told Le Monde: “If Iran, an important country, a great civilization, a major actor in the region, clearly makes the choice of co-operation, we will pay tribute to this evolution … Its contribution would be useful to solve numerous crises”.

Barack Obama, the US president, said stopping the Iranian nuclear enrichment programme averts “a nuclear arms race in the most volatile region of the world”.

Like EU leaders, he urged Iran to follow up on the accord by pursuing a more pro-Western foreign policy and by becoming less repressive at home.

“The path of violence and rigid ideology, a foreign policy based on threats to attack your neighbours or eradicate Israel - that’s a dead end”, he said.

The Vienna breakthrough saw the EU immediately extend the suspension of some its sanctions until January next year.

The rest of the sanctions - which include blacklists, curbs on oil and gas exportation, curbs on investment and technology transfer, as well as broader economic measures, and an arms embargo - will be relaxed in the first half of 2016, pending UN Security Council approval and Iranian implementation.

Some of them - on arms and on transfer of nuclear know-how - are to stay in place for five to eight years.

But the sanctions wind-down will see hundreds of bilions of dollars blocked in US and EU banks released to the Iranian treasury.

They are also likely to see a gold rush by Western companies keen to invest in the Iranian market.

Disquiet

The developments have caused disquiet for Iran’s principal adversaries - Saudi Arabia and Israel - which fear not just that the non-proliferation deal isn’t tight enough, but also that Iran’s new wealth will help it seek regional hegemony via proxy forces in Bahrain, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen.

With the Iran deal in the bag, the US and the EU are also more likely to redouble pressure on Israel to reach lasting terms with Palestine.

For his part, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, who already had lousy ties with Obama, said the Iran deal is “an historic mistake for the world”.

“Iran will receive hundreds of billions of dollars with which it can fuel its terror machine and its expansion and aggression throughout the Middle East and across the globe”.

The critics note that the mechanism to “snap-back” UN sanctions in case of Iranian non-compliance is too cumbersome.

They say international inspections of Iranian military facilities are equally bound up in red tape.

They also say limits on further nuclear research are too weak and that when the arms embargoes are lifted, in five to eight years, it will help Iran to build up the arsenals of Hezbollah and Hamas, its allies in Lebanon and Gaza, which are designated as terrorist entites by the West.

Russia

Meanwhile, the Iran deal has implications for Russian-Western relations.

For his part, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday: “We are confident that the world today breathed a sigh of relief”.

Obama, in his press conference acknowledged that “Russia was a help on this”.

“I’ll be honest with you. I was not sure given the strong differences we are having with Russia right now around Ukraine, whether this would sustain itself”, he added.

EU diplomats note that Russia didn’t try to use the Iran talks to gain EU and US sanctions relief because Middle East non-proliferation is equally in its own interest.

But the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said there should be quid pro quo on US and Nato plans to build a missile defence system in Europe.

“We all probably remember how in April 2009, giving a speech in Prague … Obama said that if Iran’s nuclear program is successfully regulated, then the aim of the European segment of the missile defense will be dropped”, Lavrov noted.

“Today, we drew the attention of our American colleagues to this fact. We will expect a reaction”.

EU expected to announce Iran deal

Iran and world powers have reached a nuclear deal with the potential to transform Middle East politics, sources report.

EU explores business deals in Iran

The lifting of sanctions against Iran after it complied with an international nuclear deal could open oil, gas, and industrial markets for EU companies.

Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access

70 percent of northern Gaza is facing famine, new data shows. There is one shower per 5,500 people, and 888 people per toilet. 'How can you live in these conditions?" asked Natalie Boucly of UNRWA at the European Humanitarian Forum.

Opinion

Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers

The UN could launch an independent international investigation into Navalny's killing, akin to investigation I conducted on Jamal Khashoggi's assassination, or on Navalny's Novichok poisoning, in my role as special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, writes the secretary-general of Amnesty International.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us