Wary of US President Donald Trump's tough talk on Iran, the European Union is courting Tehran to signal to its commitment to a nuclear deal and holding out the promise of its economic payoff ahead of May 19 presidential polls, EU diplomats say. The latter was a theme of another big conference in Tehran on Saturday attended by Germany and Iran's central banks. EU diplomats say they share US concerns over Iran's human rights record, its ballistic missiles tests, its funding of blacklisted militant groups and its support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "We disagree that we have to address these issues by ditching the (nuclear) deal," one EU diplomat told Reuters. While former president Barack Obama sought to ring fence the JCPOA from clashes with Iran on other issues, EU diplomats say they fear Trump will try to provoke Iran to withdraw from it.

Source: Egypt Independent April 30, 2017 08:26 UTC