JCPOA Commission to Convene Regular Meeting

EghtesadOnline: The 2015 nuclear deal’s Joint Commission is set to hold a meeting at the level of political directors in the Austrian capital Vienna on Wednesday for regular talks.

News ID: ۷۴۹۷۶۵

29 February 2020

According to a statement by the European Union External Action Service, the Joint Commission will be chaired by EEAS Secretary-General Helga Schmid on behalf of EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, Financial Tribune reported.

It will be attended by representatives of China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom and Iran, signatories to the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the Feb. 26 session is taking place as part of regular meetings of the Joint Commission.

"This meeting has nothing to do with the dispute resolution mechanism and is an ordinary session of the Joint Commission held every three months," Mousavi was quoted as saying by ISNA.

The dispute resolution mechanism of the nuclear deal allows signatories to discuss problems regarding the agreement’s implementation. If the issue is not solved within a set timeframe, it would be sent to the United Nations Security Council where global sanctions could be restored on Tehran.

European parties to the agreement triggered the mechanism in early January, after Iran took a final step away from its JCPOA obligations in response to the United States exit and reimposition of sanctions, as well as Europe's inability to make up for the American economic pressure.

The EU later extended the mechanism's timeline indefinitely in a gesture of good faith to allow time for the resolution of differences and prevent the case from reaching the UN Security Council.

The current meeting, however, is one of the routine quarterly assemblies of the Joint Commission, which have been taking place since the deal was signed, but is now held in the absence of the US.

The Joint Commission was set up to oversee the deal's implementation.

The Russian permanent representative to the UN said on his Twitter account that "ways and means to improve the situation within and around #JCPOA will be discussed".

Despite scaling back its JCPOA commitments, Iran has declared that it would reverse all its nuclear curbs and return to full compliance only when its economic concerns are addressed, which requires mechanisms to facilitate its oil export and the repatriation of oil revenues.