As Iran and Europe scramble to save the Iranian nuclear deal, the EU’s commissioner for energy and climate traveled to Iran to meet with Iranian officials. Miguel Arias Canete tweeted a picture of his meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and wrote about the need to “defend and fully implement" the Iran deal. He added that Europe is “committed to protecting EU investments and boosting EU-Iran trade relations.”
Canete also met with other Iranian officials. During a press conference with Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Canete said that as long as Iran remains committed to the JCPOA, or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, Europe will remain committed as well. Salehi had suggested that Iran could return to the 20% enrichment of the pre-deal levels if Europe was not able to remain in the nuclear deal. During another meeting, Canete and Iran’s oil minister, Bijan Zanganeh, discussed the issue of continuing Iran’s oil exports in the face of renewed US sanctions.