PARIS/WASHINGTON/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. officials are touring the globe to pressure countries to shun trade with Iran following Washington’s withdrawal from a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, a move that undermines European efforts to save the accord, sources said.
U.S. State and Treasury Department officials have traveled to Japan and this week U.S. diplomats are in eastern Europe as Britain, France and Germany scramble to save the 2015 pact and convince Iran that they can continue to do business with Tehran.
“The Americans are on a roadshow and going everywhere. They are dogmatic,” said a senior European diplomat. “We were clear and told them: if you are coming to tell to us how to apply American laws here then you’re not welcome,” the diplomat said.
Ministers from the three European nations and the EU foreign policy chief have written to U.S. counterparts urging them to protect EU companies working in Iran from getting caught up in Washington’s new sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
“We will hold those doing prohibited business in Iran to account,” U.S. Under Secretary of the Treasury Sigal Mandelker said in a blunt speech on Tuesday.
“The State Department delegation to Europe seeks to garner support for our global effort to pressure Iran and to explain our sanctions policy,” an U.S. State Department official said.