EU diplomacy chief Federica Mogherini said that the EU has a unique role to play in supporting peace making processes around the world, taking the lead globally on issues from sustainable development and climate change to the promotion of free trade. The EU also promotes partnership and dialogue in its foreign policy and security making, Mrs. Mogherini pointed out and stressed that “we dialogue with everyone and we always look for common ground. We believe that there is always a possibility to work together and to find solutions that are not zero-sum solutions.”
Mrs. Mogherini said that this approach to foreign policy has delivered positive results, especially when dealing with Iran since the 2015 nuclear deal. She added that the EU was still continuing its engagement with Tehran because “we had just ten days ago the sixth International Atomic Energy Agency report, saying that the [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] agreement is fully implemented. So we are defeating all these skeptics who first were betting on the impossibility to have an agreement, then on the impossibility of having the agreement starting to be put in place when we got to the implementation day, and then were saying in any case it will never hold; and now we are getting close to the second year and for the sixth time the IAEA says that it is fully implemented.”
Mrs. Mogherini further said that the EU would make sure that Tehran keeps the deal, adding that the agreement did not belong to any single country – “it belongs to the international community and as far as the European Union is concerned and all the Member States, we will make sure that the agreement continues to be in place and our policy of engagement with Iran will continue”. She also added that the EU was confident that the United States would also stick to the deal despite the anti-Iran stance of President Donald Trump.
