JCPOA Parties to Convene Wednesday

EghtesadOnline: Foreign ministers of the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear agreement are slated to hold a meeting on Wednesday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the United States.

News ID: ۷۴۸۵۰۸

22 September 2019

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who has already arrived in New York for the UN event, will attend the meeting to discuss the conditions of the fraying deal.

He is set to meet his British and French counterparts bilaterally before the meeting, ISNA reported.

The nuclear agreement, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, is on the verge of collapse with the United States already out of the deal and Iran gradually scaling back its commitment, according to Financial Tribune.

US President Donald Trump reimposed sweeping sanctions and began a maximum pressure policy against Tehran, which the remaining parties have been unable to undo or make up for.

Iran, in return, is reducing its compliance step by step as per JCPOA provisions, despite having declared that its nuclear moves will be reversed as soon as its economic concerns are met.

European signatories, led by France, are trying to broker dialogue between the two countries to end the standoff and reduce the resulting tensions.

Over the past week, there have been speculations that the Iranian and American presidents are likely to meet during the UN General Assembly, although both sides later dismissed the possibility.

Iran has announced repeatedly that it would not enter any talks unless all the pressure is lifted and any possible negotiation could only take place within the framework of multilateral talks with the five remaining parties to JCPOA.

"The Americans cannot continue economic terrorism, or economic war as Trump calls it, and pursue maximum pressure policy against Iran and seek to sit at the negotiating table at the same time," the Iranian foreign miister told reporters upon arrival in New York on Friday.

Zarif stressed that to rejoin the meetings of JCPOA parties, whether as a member or a guest, depends on the US ending its economic war against Iran.