All Parties at Vienna Meeting Urged JCPOA Preservation, China Says

The remaining parties to the deal - Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the EU and Iran - met for emergency talks in the Austrian capital on Sunday.

“All sides have expressed their commitment to safeguard the JCPOA and to continue to implement the JCPOA in a balanced manner,” Fu Cong, director general of the Department of Arms Control at China’s Foreign Ministry told journalists after the meeting in Vienna, according to Reuters.

“All sides have expressed their strong opposition against the US unilateral imposition of sanctions,” he added.

The meeting was held in Vienna on Sunday to discuss how to save the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA.

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal, including a rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.

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