Total said on Wednesday that it might pull out of a multi-billion-dollar gas project in Iran if it couldn’t get a sanctions waiver from the US.

This would be a massive blow to the Iranian Regime, who have heralded the 2017 Total deal as a sign that the accord was working in their favour.

Total’s announcement comes on the heels of other European companies, like Danish oil product shipping operator Maersk Tankers and German insurer Allianz, announcements that they would wind down business in Iran.

Ever since Donald Trump pulled out of the international accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and ordered that sanctions be re-imposed, Europe has been trying to safeguard its trade with Iran, but the control that the US has over the global financial markets has made that all but impossible.

If European companies are still linked to Iran, after a period of three to six months then they will be liable for US sanctions. At a meeting on Wednesday, the 28 EU failed to make any decisions about how to shield their dealings with Iran from US sanctions.

Iran has made many threats about restarting its nuclear programme if it loses the economic benefit of the nuclear deal, but the Iranian Regime never actually ended its programme, only moved it underground.

That was one of the reasons that Trump gave for withdrawing from the deal: Iran’s illicit nuclear programme that continues to this day. Other reasons given included that the deal failed to cover Iran’s ballistic missiles or regional expansionism and that the restrictions on Iran developing a nuclear weapon expire in 2024.

These concerns are also shared by European leaders, which is why the West should work together.

The Iranian Resistance has said for nearly 40 years that only way to stop the Iranian Regime is to impose strict unilateral sanctions on the mullahs and their proxies.

The money that the Regime is making from the trade deals are not helping the ordinary people, but rather helping the Regime to suppress them. This money pays for the suppressive security forces who torture protesters and imprison foreign nationals.

The US is already listening. It imposed sanctions on the governor of Iran’s central bank, as well as several others, designed to cut off funding to Iran’s terrorist proxies. Hopefully, Europe will listen to the cries of the Iranian people, who just want freedom.