Tehran Demands Equal Commitment to Nuclear Deal

EghtesadOnline: All signatories to the 2015 nuclear deal are required to fulfill their commitments equally, the Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman said in response to the German foreign minister's comments urging Iran to stick to the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

News ID: ۷۴۷۵۵۴

15 June 2019

"We agree with his comments about the importance of JCPOA for the international community and Europe, but don't understand their emphasis on Iran's unilateral compliance with the obligations in a multilateral deal," Abbas Mousavi added, IRNA reported.

At a nuclear disarmament meeting in Stockholm on Tuesday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas warned that withdrawal "cannot be in Iran’s interest”.

"If Iran were to withdraw from this agreement, it would go into international isolation; it would be back where it was before the agreement, including all the sanctions," he was quoted as saying by AP, according to Financial Tribune.

JCPOA has been facing a risk of collapse since the United States withdrew last year and reinstated sweeping sanctions on Tehran.

Iran opted to remain in the deal and work with other parties to neutralize the American sanctions.

As the remaining signatories failed to safeguard Iran's interests, Iran scaled back some commitments under JCPOA in early May and vowed to resume refining uranium to a higher fissile degree than that permitted by the accord in 60 days, if other parties fail to counter the effects of the sanctions.

Europe rejected the deadline, urging Iran to avoid breaching the deal.

Iran denies it is violating the terms of JCPOA, maintaining that its moves are within the deal's framework.

"If they [other parties] can't [meet their commitments], they must agree with us in reconsidering our obligations using the mechanisms that JCPOA has provided us," Mousavi said.

Maas, who was in Iran last week for talks on the country’s nuclear program, had stressed that JCPOA's breakdown served the interests of neither Europe nor Iran.

Mousavi said Europeans should also call on all parties to implement the deal and meet their commitments, if they are concerned about the deal's fate.

Maas had also said it is "unacceptable" that a co-signatory decides to reduce its commitments under the deal because another participant has chosen to not meet its obligations.

"We recommend that he and all those who express concerns over Iran's recent decisions regarding the deal, to carefully study Article 36 of JCPOA as well as the basics of law once again," Mousavi said.

The article allows Iran to take certain measures, in case any of the parties to the nuclear deal fail to meet their commitments.