The EU maintains the meeting in Vienna this Wednesday (16 December) of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, despite the execution last Saturday of a dissident Iranian journalist, escriu Yossi Lempkowicz.
Responding a question from a reporter at press conference ahead of an informal meeting between the EU and Latin America on whether this execution will have an impact on the reviving of the Iranian deal, EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell responded: ‘’I do not think that we have to change our schedule (for the Joint Commission of the JCPOA) and our work in order to keep the JCPOA alive. We will continue working for it.’’
A Europe-Iran business forum, scheduled to start on Monday, has been postponed by the organizers after several EU member states decided not to participate to protest the execution. Borrell and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javid Zarif were due to address the forum.
The EU has condemned the execution by hanging of Ruhollah Zam. "The European Union condemns this act in the strongest terms and recalls once again its irrevocable opposition to the use of capital punishment under any circumstances. It is also imperative for the Iranian authorities to uphold the due process rights of accused individuals and to cease the practice of using televised confessions to establish and promote their guilt," an EU spokesperson stated.
France has called Zam’s execution "barbaric and unacceptable", and said it ran counter to Iran’s international obligations. Zam had been based in Paris before he was kidnapped in Iraq and taken to Iran.
The new tension over human rights in Iran comes as US President-elect Joe Biden, who is set to take office on 20 January, has said he will return the United States to the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran if Tehran resumes compliance with the agreement.
