BRUSSELS: The European Union will defend the Iran nuclear accord despite Tehran’s decision to backtrack on its commitments in response to the US sanctions, diplomats believe, but European powers expect it to collapse without a deal to sell Iranian oil to China or India.
Britain, France and Germany, which signed the 2015 deal along with the United States, China and Russia, are determined to show they can compensate for last year’s US withdrawal from the accord, protect trade and still prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb.
But with Iran’s economy dependent on crude exports that are traded in the US dollars, a promised European trade channel to bypass American sanctions has proved complicated, is not yet operational, and may never be able to handle oil sales.
