In news reports, I noticed that German Chancellor Angela Merkel after 18 years in office and leading the Christian Democratic Union is stepping down from her post with uttering this sentence “I have not been born Chancellor. I have always dreamed to act honorably in any job that I take its responsibility and leave it honorably.”

IRAN NEWS POLITICAL DESK

It seems she leaves a position that in the current condition U.S. President Donald Trump is fighting fiercely for keeping it. I do not believe that Merkel during her years as Chancellor has been beneficial for her country and not for the world. Her policies regarding Iran’s nuclear deal, the JCPOA, have caused damages to Iran and fortunately she took the same path that Trump had taken although it did not show to be positive.

The European and American policies have inflicted damages on the people in the West Asia that they may not be recouped in the next 100 years. Although Merkel, by concentrating on more empowering Europe against the U.S., inflicted heavy investment to her country, she kept Germany’s stand in the West Asia to some extent. That Europe and the U.S. both see their interests in the Middle East have ended will be of the strategic points in the 2021 to 2030 outlook.

The U.S. and Germany’s partners and allies in the Middle East will definitely react to this shift of concentration by Europe to other regions for finding new partners and allies. Some of them will side with the U.S. and Germany’s friends and some will join their adversaries. In the near term, at least, these countries through weapon proliferation or armed conflict are likely to engage in riskier behaviors. We’ve seen signs of all of those things happening already—in Yemen, in Iraq, in Libya, and elsewhere—and they’re likely to happen more.

Perhaps this analysis may be correct that none of these issues except weapons proliferation is important for Westerners, including Europe and the U.S., though, who have watched refugee crises shape their politics, and for East Asian allies, who import three-quarters of their oil from the Middle East, rising instability is a major worry.

Jon B. Alterman, the director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), recently in article published in the website of the center wrote, “Amid a robust discussion about the appropriate U.S. posture in the Middle East (it means the NATO), one element is underemphasized, and sometimes it is entirely missing. Too often, people assume that the United States will fundamentally reorient its strategy toward the Middle East, and other powers (China, Iran and Russia) will essentially roll with the punches.”

But that’s not true. While the West engagement in the Middle East has grown, the world’s engagement in the region has grown as well. Allies and adversaries alike are tied into the Middle East’s status quo and try to plan strengthening their stand. When it shifts, they will shift, and when allies and adversaries feel effects, the West, including the U.S. and Europe, will feel effects. The United States might feel it is done with the Middle East, but the reverse isn’t true for the NATO and his adversaries.

China, which lacks the domestic oil and gas necessary to drive its economy, seems lashed to the Middle East for years to come. It will almost certainly seek to increase its footprint there, and it is likely to use a more dominant position in the Middle East to exert leverage over East Asian neighbors who are also reliant on the region. As Middle Eastern states view a future in which the United States is receding and China is rising, Germany, as the super power of Europe and the U.S. and as the “reeve” of the world, will be hard pressed to prevent China from embedding itself in the region’s physical and technological infrastructure. China is averse to replicating the U.S. military footprint in the Middle East, or anywhere else, but is keen to advance its security by other means. If it is able to establish pervasive surveillance capabilities, it will do more than be a force multiplier for a limited Chinese military presence. It will also build good relations with Middle Eastern governments, almost all of which are concerned by the prospect of popular discontent and are impressed by the Chinese model of economic development without destabilizing social and political change.

Merkel’s parting with her consent, under the tough coronavirus condition and virus-hit economy and Europe’s pressure in dealing with the Brexit and UK’s double standard, is her savior but costly for Europe. But exerting pressure on Trump for leaving the White House is very beneficial for the U.S. and other countries especially for the West Asia.

  By: Hamid Reza Naghashian

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“It would be best if we could reach a deal before the summer break,” Merkel said, calling for compromise from member states to enable the deal to be ratified by the end of the year.

“We must act quickly and decisively,” she said, AFP reported.

European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen proposed the huge fund to help the EU out of its deepest-ever recession, but the plan was immediately met with fierce opposition from fiscally conservative member states including Austria and the Netherlands.

The proposed package consists of 500 billion euros in grants and 250 billion euros in loans but requires unanimous EU approval.

“The starting position is far from easy but I hope that all member states will act in a spirit of compromise in the face of this unprecedented situation,” Merkel said.

“Cohesion and solidarity have never been more important than today. The crisis can only be overcome if we act for and with each other,” she said.

The European Council is due to hold a video summit on June 19 on the controversial stimulus package, the EU’s largest to date.

However, a decision is not expected until the leaders have met in person, said Merkel, whose country assumes the EU presidency in July.

The German chancellor had in late May stunned observers by proposing along with French President Emmanuel Macron the plan for 500 billion euros in grants to help the hardest-hit EU members to get their economies back on track.

That proposal, now making up the bulk of von der Leyen’s package, shattered a long-standing German taboo as it included taking on shared debt, a dramatic U-turn after years of obstinate German opposition to joint borrowing.

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“There is an agreement that more time is needed due to the complexity of the issues involved. The timeline for  dispute mechanism is therefore extended,” Borrell said in a statement.

“All JCPOA participants reconfirmed their determination to preserve the agreement which is in the interest of all,” he said, using the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action which is the official name of the Iran deal.

On January 14, Borrell was notified by Paris, London, and Berlin that they had triggered the dispute mechanism, in theory starting a 15-day process to resolve issues with Iran. However, in practice it is not clear when the 15-day period should start because Iran has not formally recognized the consultation process, officials have said.

Borrell said the Joint Commission that regulates the Iran nuclear deal will meet in February but did not give a date.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned against prematurely scrapping the international nuclear deal with Iran, saying that it would be wrong to abandon an “imperfect” deal with nothing better in place.

Britain, France, and Germany – collectively known as the EU3 or E3 – launched the process last week charging Iran with failing to observe the terms of the multinational nuclear agreement, a move that could eventually see the UN Security Council reimpose international sanctions on the country.

Iran has criticized the three European nations for inaction over sanctions the United States reimposed after unilaterally withdrawing from the landmark accord in May 2018.

Iran has rejected the European move to trigger the dispute mechanism of the deal, saying it “has no legal basis.”

The 2015 nuclear deal reached with Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States gave Iran relief from sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

A year after the US pullout, Iran began to roll back its commitments to the accord in retaliation.

Iran’s latest and final step in January entailed forgoing the limit on the number of machines used to make uranium more potent.

Iran has said it will return to its nuclear obligations if the European signatories hold their part of the bargain.

“The very day you return to your commitments, we will live up to our own commitments,” President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday.

EU stance

The Wall Street Journal cited European diplomats as saying that the E3 will avoid triggering sanctions against Iran.

The US daily reported on Thursday that European diplomats don’t expect Iran to reverse the suspension of its nuclear deal commitments and that the diplomats “privately say they are prepared to tolerate those steps”.

According to the WSJ report, European diplomats are seeking to persuade Iran against taking major “new nuclear steps Iran has not taken yet” and “restrain” the expansion of its nuclear activities.

The report added that European officials are currently divided, however, on what would constitute as a restrained approach from Iran, with some proposing that Tehran’s “modest” continued expansion of its uranium production would be acceptable.

Reuters and Press TV contributed to this story.

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The Vladimir Putin hosted his German counterpart, Angela Merkel, in the Kremlin on Saturday, to discuss issues such as Iran nuclear deal, according to RT.

The meeting came after European foreign ministers on Friday rallied behind the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, despite the US president’s renewed call for allies to abandon it.

The European Union has said that it will “spare no effort” to keep the nuclear deal alive, even though Tehran said it would no longer be bound by the agreement’s restrictions on centrifuges and uranium enrichment following the Trump administration’s assassination of Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, according to The Washington Post.

During an emergency session on Friday, the European foreign ministers also said the escalation between the United States and Iran had risked progress against the Daesh terrorist group.

In an attempt to avoid an escalation between Iran and the US, EU leaders in the recent week have intensified diplomatic activities, trying to salvage the EU-brokered nuclear deal while making sure the US-led anti-Daesh coalition continues to operate in Iraq after Iraq’s parliament called for the withdrawal of all foreign troops from the country, Euractiv website reported.

“The region cannot afford another war, we call for an urgent de-escalation and maximum restraint,” EU’s chief diplomat Josep Borrell told reporters following the meeting in Brussels on Friday, that had reaffirmed European commitments preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“We have been saying in the past and we continue to say that we regret the US decision to withdraw from the deal,” Borrell said, “And we continue believing that this deal is a key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture and critical for the regional stability.”

He also warned that negotiating a new pact would be a “very complex, highly technical process” that would take a long time.

The US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook claimed on Friday that Washington’s sanctions policy on Iran is a more effective non-proliferation tool to force Tehran to negotiate a broader accord than the 2015 nuclear deal,

His remarks stood in contrast to those of EU foreign ministers.

“It is clear that we are in a completely different position from the United States,” Borrell told reporters after the meeting.

Borrell also admitted that the potential differences between the treaty parties could at some point become so irreconcilable that they could risk the deal collapsing.

The European officials did not consider triggering a dispute resolution process that could lead to renewed United Nations sanctions on Iran.

Since the Trump administration decided to exit the deal in 2018, all three European parties to the pact – Britain, France, and Germany – have repeatedly stressed their commitment to saving it, even after a call by Trump on Wednesday urging them to join him in walking away.

One of the contentious points between Europe and Washington has been the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), which was born as the brainchild of France, Germany, and the UK in January 2019, and recently joined by further European countries.

It was created as a special purpose vehicle to help EU companies do business with Iran and facilitate non-USD transactions to avoid breaking US sanctions against the country.

European efforts, however, to ensure that Iran can keep trading in spite of the sanctions have had little impact.

The Trump administration on Friday imposed new sanctions on Iran, with the latest round set to target multiple sectors of the Islamic Republic’s economy, including construction, manufacturing, textiles, and mining.

Borrell has invited Iranian Foreign Minister Mohamed Javad Zarif for talks to Brussels, but a date for his visit has yet to be set.

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The German chancellor said the British government had shown “a readiness to negotiate with very concrete proposals on customs for Brexit”.

 “There has been movement in recent days, significant movement … So we are on a better path than before but, today I must say very clearly, we have not reached the goal yet,” Merkel told Germany’s Bundestag lower house of parliament.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s last-ditch attempt to clinch a Brexit deal was thrown into disarray just hours before an EU summit on Thursday when the Northern Irish party he needs to help ratify any agreement refused to support it.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Merkel said there had been many times in the recent past where a solution seemed to have been almost reached before things broke down, adding that she could not therefore say how the EU summit would end this week.

 “We do not yet have an agreement on all the questions related to customs for Brexit. We need practical, realistic solutions on how the new customs controls in Northern Ireland should concretely be implemented,” she said, Reuters reported.

“An agreement on an orderly departure of the United Kingdom from the European Union and a proper plan of customs for Brexit remains possible,” she told lawmakers, adding to loud applause: “I can say that we will not allow hate and violence to flare up on the island of Ireland again.”

 “We will negotiate until the last second,” she said.

 “If necessary, we can meet again for an extraordinary (European) Council. But let’s see what happens here. Even if we are well prepared for a disorderly exit, an orderly Brexit is of course in everyone’s interests.”

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In recent years, we have repeatedly spoken about the blows that hit the United Europe hard, and resulted in constant and overwhelming crises in this block. The European authorities now refer to “returning to nationalism” as a potential danger (and in some cases, the actual danger!) In this block, and warn against it without mentioning the origin of this danger.

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