Ayatollah Sets Demands of the European Union if Nuclear Deal is to Continue without the US

Sensing the European Union’s anxiety over the prospect of Iran calling an end to the nuclear agreement because of the American pullout, Iran’s Supreme Leader himself, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has set the bar and has told the EU just how high it needs to jump. Using his website as the platform for his demands, the Ayatollah went so far as to demand that the EU guarantee oil prices and even Iranian petroleum sales. In an apparent reference to the American withdrawal, the Iranian leader is exacting a promise that it will not again be asked to modify the deal and that the European banks “safeguard trade with the Islamic Republic.” Under US sanctions, businesses and institutions found to be doing business with Iran will find themselves hit with large fines and the inability to access the American banking institutions. History has shown being frozen out of American international banks is arguably the most compelling and effective sanction. A final demand by Khamenei is that the EU secure a Security Council resolution condemning the United States for violating the enabling resolution (2231) that ratified the nuclear deal.