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"With the withdrawal of America, [Iran's] public expectations of the European Union have increased in order to maintain the deal's gains, and in the current context, the European political support for the accord is not sufficient,"Zarif said as he met Miguel Arias Canete, the EU's energy commissioner, in Tehran on Sunday, the IRNA news agency reports.
"The announcement of the possible withdrawal by major European companies from their co-operation with Iran is not consistent with the European Union's commitment to implementing [the nuclear deal]," Iran's top diplomat said.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi denied reports that the European Union had requested to include talks on Iran's missile program and regional power and announced that the European nations had agreed to limited talks with Tehran only to the nuclear deal.
"Araqchi said that we only implement the nuclear deal and remain committed to our nuclear deal undertakings. We have not negotiated on any other issues. The Europeans have also accepted that we will not negotiate on other issues," Seyed Javad Abtahi, a senior MP, cited the deputy minister as saying.
According to Araqchi, Tehran doubts that Europe can stay committed to the deal and continue its implementation without the United States. "The Europeans do not want to enter a political or trade war with the US and they cannot force their private companies to cooperate with Iran either," Abtahi quoted him as saying.
The European Union seeks to protect its companies operating in the Islamic Republic from secondary sanctions; for instance, the European Commission has already announced it will introduce the 1996 "blocking statute" to counter US restrictions.
Earlier, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire proposed three counter-measures to Washington's pullout, and voiced hope that the Commission would take "concrete decisions." He suggested that the bloc start implementing the "blocking statute," withdraw from the US-controlled SWIFT and establish, along with the European Investment Bank, "an independent financial instrument that will allow our companies to work freely where Europe deems fit." And, last but not the least, to set up a mechanism to better control, single out and block risky investments.
"It is our right to transfer the Arabs ... The Arabs should go!" - Yosef Weitz, leading Zionist figure, director of the Land and Afforestation Department of the Jewish National Fund (JNF), 1940While Israel claims "security" and "defense of its border" to justify the recent mass murder in Gaza, the historical record of Israel's founding fathers and government planners paints a different picture entirely. Aware that an "injustice was unavoidable" for their state to be established, the early Zionist settlers adopted a position of pure hegemony towards the Palestinians - which continues to this day. They had to be "shown the power of Israel" through the "use of force" until they were "compelled to concede" and "submit" to Israeli rule.
"The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war." - David Ben-Gurion, 1937
"The main thing is, first and foremost, to hit them hard. Not just one hit... but many painful [hits], so that the price will be unbearable. ... To bring them to a state of panic that everything is collapsing ... fear that everything will collapse ... The world will say nothing. The world will say that we are defending ourselves." - Current Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, 2001
Comment: When costs outweigh benefits, when progress becomes regression, when life no longer matters...the price is too high to pay.