Caricature by DonkeyHotey flic.kr/p/Ct4G4K https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

When Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal on Wednesday, European companies were faced with a stark choice. Do they continue doing business in Iran and risk being prohibited from doing business with the United States and with any bank who does business with the United States? Or do they pull out of Iran? The answer to that question will become more clear in the next few weeks as Steve Mnuchin and the green eyeshades guys in Treasury begin to reimpose pre-2015 sanctions (I have to say, Mnuchin is the first Treasury Secretary I’ve seen who seems positively gleeful about slapping malefactors with sanctions, I hope it becomes a tradition).

Iran has released this video:

And this letter:

Statement by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran on U.S. Government withdrawal from the nuclear deal (#JCPOA) https://t.co/xG2tsB2GQH pic.twitter.com/W0gfz7UXF9 — Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 11, 2018

There is an interesting section in the letter:

Shortly before Trump withdrew from the agreement, Zarif’s spokesman had something to say which seems related to that section:

H.J.Ansari Zarif’s senior advisor: “If Europeans stop trading with Iran and don’t put pressure on US then we will reveal which western politicians and how much money they had received during nuclear negotiations to make #IranDeal happen.”

That would be interesting.#JCPOA — Raman Ghavami (@Raman_Ghavami) May 8, 2018

I wish I could say I was shocked that Iran was paying off Western diplomats and officials to negotiate a deal that gave it everything it wanted and demanded nothing in return.

#IranDeal "I have convened a ministerial meeting with the FMs of Germany🇩🇪 @HeikoMaas, France🇫🇷 @JY_LeDrian , UK🇬🇧 @BorisJohnson for next Tuesday in Brussels. First the three of them with me, and then we will meet with Iran🇮🇷 FM @JZarif” @FedericaMog 🇪🇺 #JCPOA #SOU2018 pic.twitter.com/E19WCmHfpk — European External Action Service – EEAS 🇪🇺 (@eu_eeas) May 11, 2018

17/Q post 05-04-18:

JK & Iran; ASKS WHY is 🐍Obama & John Kerry traveling the world meeting w/foreign heads of state (some enemies of the US) & HRC/BC flying under radar to same pic.twitter.com/8Ltka8htMg — JD (@JDiviv) May 13, 2018

So John Kerry just left a meeting @ L’Avenue in Paris w/3 Iranians. A friend was sitting next to their table and heard JK blasting @realDonaldTrump. The Iranians had a 5 person security detail and left in diplomatic vehicles. Is he FARA registered? @seanhannity @TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/vVYwDQTPNb — Jason Osborne (@_JasonOsborne) May 12, 2018