French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told a meeting of the UN Security Council last month that France would reimpose tough international sanctions on Iran when the nuclear deal, endorsed by President Obama in 2015, expires in October. His warning exposed a number of deep missteps within French and indeed European diplomacy. Firstly, the 2015 nuclear deal is defunct. It died following America’s unilateral withdrawal from the accord in 2018, during President Trump’s first term in the White House, when he described it as the worst deal in American history. Secondly, Trump reimposed his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign of tough sanctions on the Iranian regime, so threats of reinstating international sanctions under the so-called ‘snapback’ mechanism of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) seem to be redundant ... or are they?
Britain, France and Germany, the key European signatories to the deal known as the E3, have never abandoned their strategy of trying to breathe life back into the corpse of the JCPOA. Their cringing policy of appeasing the mullahs has failed again and again. Jean-Noel Barrot unwittingly laid bare the EU’s slavish attempts to placate the mullahs when he told the UN Security Council that reactivating the snapback mechanism would “permanently close off Iranian access to technology, investment, and the European market, with devastating effects on the country’s economy.” The excitable reaction of the Iranian regime to the French foreign minister’s statement clearly revealed the extent to which European trade with the theocratic regime has continued, despite Trump’s sanctions. A spokesperson for the Iranian Majlis (parliament) said: “If the snapback mechanism is activated, we will activate our own levers, including withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT),” reports Mehr News Agency.
So, while the mullahs’ Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is responsible for much of the ongoing conflict that has ravaged the Middle East and for sponsoring and controlling terrorist operations worldwide, the EU and in particular the E3 continue to supply them with “technology, investment and access to the European market,” according to Monsieur Barrot. Together with their Houthi allies, the IRGC threaten U.S. military vessels in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. They attach limpet mines to oil-tankers and seize commercial vessels in pirate-style attacks. They launch drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping, disrupting world trade. The IRGC supplied Vladimir Putin with kamikaze drones to use in his illegal war in Ukraine. They have masterminded murders, bombings and attempted assassinations on European soil, targeting anyone who opposes their tyrannical regime. In November 2018, they attempted to assassinate the senior Spanish politician Alejo Vidal Quadras, shooting him in the face outside his Madrid home. Professor Vidal Quadras, a long standing supporter of the main democratic Iranian opposition movement the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), miraculously survived. Several people involved in the assassination attempt have been arrested, all with links to Iran. But still the EU wants to negotiate with this gangster regime.
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President Trump is pressing the mullahs to end their nuclear enrichment program and to sever links with the terrorists Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. He has given them three months to comply or threatened military action against their nuclear sites, which will probably include air support for Israeli bombing strikes. In desperation, the mullahs are trying to string out the diplomatic negotiations with the U.S., while simultaneously stage-managing talks with the EU. The Iranian regime’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, has even invited himself to London, Paris and Berlin in the hope of staving off renewed European sanctions and using negotiations with the E3 as leverage against President Trump. Araghchi said: “I once again propose diplomacy. After my recent consultations in Moscow and Beijing, I am ready to take the first step with visits to Paris, Berlin and London. I was ready to do it before Iran commenced its indirect dialogue with the U.S., but the E3 opted out.”
Having seen the collapse of their main collaborator Bashar al-Assad in Syria, the destruction of their proxy allies Hamas and Hezbollah by Israel, and the clinical bombing of the Houthis by the U.S., the mullahs are now at their weakest point ever. They are running out of friends and running out of time. With the Iranian economy in a state of collapse after decades of mismanagement and corruption, the Iranian people are restless and ready to explode. Predictably, the mullahs’ response has been to ramp up arrests and executions in an attempt to terrify the population into submission.The regime hanged 22 prisoners from April 21 to 23. Iran has carried out a frenzy of 1,051 state executions since the so-called ‘moderate’ President Masoud Pezeshkian took office on July 8, 2024. The figure represents a 20 percent increase on the 853 Iranians, mostly political prisoners, hanged in 2023. The state killing machine has infuriated the Iranian people who are now on the verge of nationwide insurrection.
Given the regime's current weakness and crisis, it is time for the French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot and for the West to wake up. The policy of appeasement has failed. These efforts have served only to embolden the ruling clerics, who have faced no repercussions for their myriad crimes and violations of international law. Western nations must show outright support for the Iranian people and their desire for regime-change. History has repeatedly demonstrated that the Iranian regime is inherently incapable of meaningful reform. Only their complete overthrow, led by the Iranian people themselves, can pave the way for true and lasting positive change.
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