Top EU diplomat slams Trump, reaffirms union’s commitment to Iran nuclear deal

Brussels, Oct 14 (IANS) The European Union (EU) will continue to fully implement the Iran nuclear deal, despite US President Donald Trump's decision to decertify Iran's compliance with the deal, EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini has said.

"It's not a bilateral agreement. It does not belong to any single country. It's not up to any single country to terminate it," said Mogherini at a press conference on Friday, following Trump's announcement, Xinhua news agency reported.

"It is a robust deal that provides guarantees and a strong monitoring mechanism that Iran nuclear program is and will remain exclusively for civilian purposes only," she noted.

"We cannot afford... to dismantle a nuclear agreement this is working and delivering," she said, stressing the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified eight times that Iran is implementing all its nuclear-related commitments.

"There have been no violations of any of the commitments included in the agreement. The scope of the agreement relates to the nuclear program and it is being fulfilled," She said, adding, "The deal has prevented, continues to prevent, and will continue to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons."

"The US' domestic process -- and I underline domestic -- following today's announcement of President Trump is now in the hands of the United States' Congress. The JCPOA is not a domestic issue but a United Nations Security Council Resolution," she said.

Mogherini reaffirmed that the EU "continues to fully support the Iran nuclear deal, and the full and strict implementation of all its provisions by all parties".

The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as formally known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was reached in 2015 between Iran and Britain, China, France, Russia and the US plus Germany.

The EU also played an important role in brokering the deal and deemed it as one of the bloc's outstanding diplomatic achievements.

Trump announced on Friday that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the landmark deal.

"I am announcing today that we cannot and will not make this certification," Trump said at the White House as he unveiled a new Iran strategy of his administration.

Despite his criticism of Iran and the Iran nuclear deal, Trump on Friday stopped short of abandoning the nuclear deal.

Instead, he said he was directing his administration to work with Congress and US allies to address "the deal's many serious flaws," including "insufficient enforcement and near-total silence on Iran's missile programs."

In case the efforts fail, Trump warned that "then the (Iran nuclear) agreement will be terminated".

The decertification would not pull the United States out of the Iran nuclear deal at the moment, but it would open a 60-day window in which US Congress could reimpose nuclear-related sanctions on Iran, a step which would mean the violation of the deal on the US side.