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AFP
Warsaw
US Vice President Mike Pence demanded Thursday that Europeans drop a nuclear deal with Iran and join in seeking to cripple the regime, a cause that united Israel with longtime Arab rivals at a conference in Warsaw.
Major European powers sent low-level representation to the US-initiated meeting, suspicious of US President Donald Trump’s hawkish impulses and convinced the 2015 deal under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear programme is working.
But Pence took direct aim at allies Britain, France and Germany, denouncing their new initiative to let European companies operate in Iran in defiance of unilateral US sanctions.
“It’s an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the EU and creates still more distance between Europe and the United States,” he said.
“The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join with us,” he said.
The Warsaw conference is timed just as Iran’s clerical regime celebrates 40 years since the Islamic revolution ousted the pro-US shah. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, visiting the Russian resort of Sochi for a simultaneous summit called by Russian leader Vladimir Putin that also included Turkey, retorted: “We see what’s happening in Warsaw, it’s an empty result, nothing.”
Pence stopped just short of calling for regime change in Iran, which has been comparatively stable in recent years amid unrest throughout the Middle East.
Pence threatened further US sanctions as “the people of Iran take to the streets” and its “economy continues to plummet”. He accused Iran of plotting a “new Holocaust” with its opposition to Israel and regional ambitions in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
“Freedom-loving nations must stand together and hold the Iranian regime accountable for the evil and violence it has inflicted on its people, on the region and the wider world,” Pence said. Pence tacitly acknowledged that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal but said the issue was the accord itself, brokered under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
Warsaw
US Vice President Mike Pence demanded Thursday that Europeans drop a nuclear deal with Iran and join in seeking to cripple the regime, a cause that united Israel with longtime Arab rivals at a conference in Warsaw.
Major European powers sent low-level representation to the US-initiated meeting, suspicious of US President Donald Trump’s hawkish impulses and convinced the 2015 deal under which Iran drastically scaled back its nuclear programme is working.
But Pence took direct aim at allies Britain, France and Germany, denouncing their new initiative to let European companies operate in Iran in defiance of unilateral US sanctions.
“It’s an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the EU and creates still more distance between Europe and the United States,” he said.
“The time has come for our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join with us,” he said.
The Warsaw conference is timed just as Iran’s clerical regime celebrates 40 years since the Islamic revolution ousted the pro-US shah. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, visiting the Russian resort of Sochi for a simultaneous summit called by Russian leader Vladimir Putin that also included Turkey, retorted: “We see what’s happening in Warsaw, it’s an empty result, nothing.”
Pence stopped just short of calling for regime change in Iran, which has been comparatively stable in recent years amid unrest throughout the Middle East.
Pence threatened further US sanctions as “the people of Iran take to the streets” and its “economy continues to plummet”. He accused Iran of plotting a “new Holocaust” with its opposition to Israel and regional ambitions in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen.
“Freedom-loving nations must stand together and hold the Iranian regime accountable for the evil and violence it has inflicted on its people, on the region and the wider world,” Pence said. Pence tacitly acknowledged that Iran is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal but said the issue was the accord itself, brokered under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama.
