Europe’s courts are thwarting efforts by countries to impose sanctions against Iran’s elite and businesses and deter their alleged support for a nuclear weapons program, according to Reuters.
A recent string of victories by Iranian entities challenging the sanctions has proved to be an embarrassing episode for European governments.
Iran’s Bank Mellat won a January case in front of the European Union’s second-highest court by arguing that governments failed to provide enough evidence linking its banking services to the nuclear program:
The lifting of sanctions against Bank Mellat is postponed for now, pending an appeal by EU governments to Europe's highest court. But the case illustrates the dilemma facing the European Union in its push to stop Iran from advancing the atom work.
Government lawyers are telling the courts to trust them and the courts are refusing. To safeguard its sanctions policy and its economic pressure on Iran, the EU may have to present evidence - including sensitive intelligence - in court.
But because of rules governing pan-European courts, all evidence would then become public which may damage clandestine operations and unravel the process of devising sanctions.
Lawyers have proposed reforms to the sanctions process such as targeting broader sectors of the Iranian economy, but some Eurozone countries might not be on board. German small businesses earned about $250 million a month from legitimate trade with Iran last year, experts note in the article.