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 By Frank ZELLER Vienna (AFP) July 6, 2018
The top diplomats of Iran and five world powers meet Friday as Tehran seeks assurances it will benefit economically from the nuclear deal despite the US withdrawal from the pact. But in a setback on the eve of the talks, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani told French President Emmanuel Macron that European economic measures now on offer did not go far enough. Rouhani, who this week visited Europe to rally support for the nuclear deal's survival, said in a phone call with Macron that the package "does not meet all our demands", reported Iran's IRNA state news agency. Since US President Donald Trump's shock move in May, which dismayed all other signatories, Washington has warned other countries to end trade and investment in Iran and stop buying its oil from early November or face punitive measures. The other signatories -- Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia -- have vowed to stay in the accord but appear powerless to stop their countries' companies pulling out of Iran for fear of US penalties. The Vienna meeting of foreign ministers will discuss the European offer that aims to persuade Iran to stick with the 2015 deal, a European diplomat said without specifying the measures. The top diplomats of the five powers and the European Union were due to join Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif from 0900 GMT in Vienna, where the accord was signed. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said this week the talks should give an "impetus" to protect the interests of economic actors. And Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the meeting would "send a united and determined signal" to the world that the other parties "will continue to respect the agreement". - 'Crime and aggression' - Iranians have complained that the hoped-for rise in foreign investment and trade after the deal has not materialised. Since Trump's announcement, Iran's rial currency has fallen, prices have risen and the country has been hit by street protests and strikes. Rouhani, who signed the nuclear deal, has been attacked at home by ultra-conservatives, who have denounced his willingness to talk to the West and accused him of hurting the economy. Visiting Austria on Wednesday, he met Yukiya Amano, head of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA which monitors Iran's compliance with the accord. Rouhani told Amano that US sanctions were a "crime and aggression" that other nations should resist, according to IRNA. He added that "if the other signatories, apart from the United States, can guarantee Iran's interests then Iran will stay in the JCPOA", or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the accord's formal name. Trump in May slammed the nuclear accord signed under his predecessor Barack Obama as "horrible" and "defective at its core," earning applause from Iran's regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iran, which strongly denies ever having sought a nuclear bomb, has warned it could resume uranium enrichment for civilian purposes if the deal collapses. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed that Iran "will never tolerate both suffering from sanctions and nuclear restrictions". US-Iran relations have been hostile since the 1979 overthrow of the US-backed shah and US embassy hostage crisis. Washington considers Iran a state sponsor of terrorism, with links to Lebanon's Hezbollah, Hamas in the Palestinian territories and networks in Iraq and Yemen, and demands it cease support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The new round of diplomacy has been clouded after security services said they had foiled an alleged plot to bomb a Paris rally by an exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen of Iran. The large rally last Saturday attracted several US politicians, including former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, now Trump's personal lawyer. Six people were arrested in Belgium, France and Germany, while the opposition group blamed the Iranian regime for the alleged plot. One of those detained was a diplomat attached to the Iranian embassy in Austria. Tehran dismissed it is an orchestrated "false flag ploy", designed to discredit Iran and overshadow Rouhani's trip to Europe, and Wednesday summoned the French and Belgian ambassadors and the German charge d'affaires in protest.
Pompeo in N. Korea to seek 'details' on denuclearisation Pompeo was greeted in the North Korean capital by Kim's right hand man Kim Yong Chol and Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho. Since meeting Kim in Singapore last month Trump has been bullish about hopes for peace, boasting that the threat of nuclear war is over. But the statement the leaders signed was short on clear commitments. Kim agreed to the "complete denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula" -- a stock phrase favoured by Pyongyang that stops short of longstanding US demands for North Korea to give up its atomic arsenal in a "verifiable" and "irreversible" way. Pompeo has been tasked with negotiating a plan that Washington hopes would involve Kim declaring the extent of his nuclear weapons programme and agreeing a timetable for it to be dismantled. "Our leaders made commitments at the Singapore summit on the complete denuclearisation of North Korea," Pompeo had earlier told reporters travelling with him. "On this trip I'm seeking to fill in some details on those commitments and continue the momentum toward implementation of what the two leaders promised each other and the world," he said. "I expect that the DPRK is ready to do the same," he added, using the initials of North Korea's official name. Kim Yong Chol welcomed Pompeo to North Korea, noting that it was his third visit to the country. "The more we meet, the deeper our friendship will be, I hope," he said. "The more you come, the more trust we can build between one another." The top US diplomat, who will be staying overnight in the North Korean capital for the first time, said he looked forward to a "very productive" encounter. In a tweet before he landed in Pyongyang, Pompeo said he was "looking forward to continuing our work toward the final, fully verified denuclearisation of #DPRK, as agreed to by Chairman Kim". Washington hopes that "complete" denuclearisation can begin within a year, but many expert observers and Trump critics warn that Kim's summit promise meant little and the process could take years -- if it ever starts. In the meantime, Pompeo and Trump have vowed to keep in place the international economic sanctions that they believe forced the North to the negotiating table in the first place. Shortly after arriving in Pyongyang, Pompeo laughed off reports in the South Korean press that he was carrying an Elton John CD. Chosun Ilbo, citing unnamed Washington sources, said the "Rocket Man" CD was a gift for Kim Jong Un -- a reference to Trump's "Little Rocket Man" jibe of last year. After talks late Friday and early Saturday in the capital, Pompeo is due to fly on to Tokyo to brief his Japanese and South Korean counterparts. His round-the-world diplomatic voyage will then take him on to Vietnam and Abu Dhabi before he arrives in the Belgian capital Brussels to rejoin Trump for next week's NATO summit.
US presses UN Security Council to sanction Iran United Nations, United States (AFP) June 27, 2018 The United States urged fellow UN Security Council members Wednesday to punish Iran for "malign behavior" in the Middle East, at a meeting on implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. "When confronted with a country that continually violates this council's resolutions, it is imperative that we pursue meaningful consequences," said Jonathan Cohen, the US deputy ambassador to the United Nations. "That is why we urge members of this Council to join us in the imposition of sanctions that ... read more
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