As Donald Trump was preparing to deal a blow to the Iran nuclear deal, European leaders were working to contain the damage. London last week hosted Ali Akbar Salehi, an Iranian vice-president and one of the leading architects of the accord; Paris let it be known that Emmanuel Macron was considering a trip to Iran next year, a first for a French president since the 1979 revolution.
Mr Trump’s decision not to certify that Iran is compliant with the accord has handed the problem to Congress, which must now renegotiate some critical clauses or kill it by re-imposing sanctions on Tehran. It has also left key sponsors of the agreement — Britain, France and Germany — with the fraught mission of keeping it alive.
Europe’s interest in a nuclear understanding with Iran has been consistent, and more longstanding than the US’s. It was the EU 3 who set Iran on a path of negotiations more than a decade ago, winning a freeze in Tehran’s nuclear activities in 2003. The suspension was shortlived; it collapsed over Iran’s determination to maintain a small uranium enrichment programme and America’s insistence on a complete dismantling of nuclear activities.