The European Union today demanded that Iran set a specific date for the upcoming P5+1 ones, prefaced with another promise to move soon to enact yet more far-reaching sanctions against Iranian industry.
The sanctions will ban all investment in Iran’s oil and gas industry, as well as putting serious restrictions on banking, insurance, and transportaiton from the nation. The sanctions are in addition to previously announced EU sanctions, as well as the UN Security Council sanctions.
Though the sanctions are nominally aimed at punishing Iran for its civilian nuclear program, they are by and large directly at Iran’s domestic economy while having little impact on the energy program.
In fact to the extent that the sanctions damage the Iranian oil and gas industry, they are actually pressuring Iran to make further efforts at developing their nuclear energy program as an alternative.
By and large the sanctions have hit civilians much harder than Iran’s government, with passenger planes being stranded in Europe because US sanctions ban them from being refueled, and Iranian exchange students are denied because the UN sanctions keep them from taking foreign language proficiency tests.