It’s Warsaw and Washington against the big EU powers, as U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration pushes to kill the Iran nuclear deal — and to exploit European divisions on foreign policy in the process.
Of all the damage Trump has done to transatlantic relations, no issue has divided the U.S. from its European allies as starkly as the dispute over the Iran accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The fight is about to heat up.
EU officials this month plan to approve and register in France a “special purpose vehicle” aimed at helping European companies to continue doing business with Iran and circumvent the sanctions Trump unilaterally reimposed on Tehran last year.
Final preparations for the special purpose vehicle will be discussed by EU foreign affairs ministers in Brussels on Monday, where they are also working to develop broader conclusions on Iran to be adopted at an EU leaders’ summit in March.
In Poland, some analysts said the government was largely caught off-guard by the Trump administration’s plans.
The refusal of the EU, and the three European guarantors of the JCPOA — France, Germany and the U.K. — to fall in line behind Trump’s pullout from the deal has enraged the president and his administration.
Escalating the dispute, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has railed recently against the EU and other multilateral organizations, will hold a conference in Poland next month on Middle East peace that will put a spotlight on tensions between Warsaw and Brussels, including on foreign policy.
