Speaking in an interview with Spain’s El País newspaper published on Sunday, the new EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the bloc has the “greatest interest” in the survival of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We call on the Iranian authorities to do what they can to keep the pact alive,” he added, stressing that killing the agreement would be a “big mistake”.

His remarks come as the nuclear agreement has long ceased to be economically beneficial to Iran following the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the pact and lack of any practical measures from the European signatories to the deal to secure Iran’s economic interests in the face of US sanctions.

A year after the US’ withdrawal, Iran began taking measures to reduce its commitments to the JCPOA in a bid to create a balance between its rights and obligations and also to encourage the other parties to live up to their own share of commitments to keep the agreement alive.

Meanwhile, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden have recently announced they have become shareholders of the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX) – a financial mechanism meant to bypass US sanctions on Tehran.

The six European countries said in their joint statement on Friday that their decision to join INSTEX was in line with “the continuous European support” for the JCPOA.

Borrell had said back in July that his country Spain was also keen on joining the INSTEX.