Policy recommendations: 

• European governments and the EU should safeguard the JCPOA and vigorously plan for contingencies should the US continue to backtrack on the nuclear deal. This should primarily focus on legal, political, and economic measures that can ringfence European companies from the enforcement of US secondary sanctions.
• Europe should also pursue the political openings created by the nuclear deal to engage in tough diplomacy with Iran on non-nuclear issues. The most promising areas for tangible, albeit incremental, progress include: freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf, reducing the violence in conflicts in Yemen and Syria, and lowering tensions in Iraqi Kurdistan.
• The EU should facilitate dialogue with regional powers with the aim of creating greater transparency over ballistic missile capacities in the Middle East.
• European countries and the EU should further nurture the channels they have developed with the Iranian leadership to help counterbalance the impact of Donald Trump’s polarising narratives on regional developments.

The full paper which is written by Ellie Geranmayher can be viewed here:- http://www.ecfr.eu/page/-/ECFR-236_-_Why_Iran_Will_Divide_Europe_From_The_US_GERANMAYEH.pdf

The paper has been published by the European Council of Foreign Relations (ECFR). More information about the ECFR can be found at www.ecfr.eu