Speaking to Mehr News correspondent on Saturday, Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Morteza Safari Natanzi, said talks with the EU on the future of the Iran nuclear deal is still ongoing, and the nuclear negotiating team are still holding several meetings with European officials on this topic.

He said the reason behind the prolonged talks is that European countries are trying to make the conditions ready for the export of Iranian oil to Europe.

He quoted European officials as saying in the meeting with the Iranian side that they are seeking ways to maintain banking transactions between Iran and the EU.

Safari deemed the trend of talks with the EU ‘satisfactory’, saying “we must seek diplomatic ways to isolate the US and put up a serious front against the country’s efforts to sanction Iran.”

“Overall assessments show that the Europeans’ package is not totally bad, but it does not provide much for the demands and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Natanzi told Mehr News on Sunday.

Safari Natanzi said that the Europeans have offered some general proposals in order to buy time and continue negotiations.

“Negotiations with the Europeans are not over as they have apparently left the door open to secure Iran’s interests, including the purchase of Iranian oil, the continued cooperation of European banks with Iran, and the presence of small and medium-sized European companies in the Iranian market,” the senior Iranian lawmaker said.

On the possible impact of the US secondary sanctions on the future of the relations between European companies and the Islamic Republic of Iran, he said “at the moment, US unilateral sanctions are not being approved by the UN Security Council and the European countries, therefore, can ignore these sanctions if they want to. There are no obstacles ahead of them, unless they are a target for the American bans. But at the same time the European seems to have taken measures in order to protect at least their small and medium-sized companies in their relations with Iran.”

In response to the question whether small and medium-sized European companies are able to meet Iran’s demands, the MP stated “large European companies have their own problems due to their multi-national nature and foreign interventions, thus it might be better to cooperate with small and medium-sized enterprises.”

Safari Natanzi was positive about the future of relations between Iran and the Europeans, saying “if there had not been these bilateral relations and commitments, we would still have been under the US sanctions. In the current situation that Americans are diligently seeking to hurt us with sanctions, [the relations with Europeans] are an opportunity for us to open a new space for further engagement.”