Russian Diplomat:

Trump Blackmailing Europe on JCPOA

TEHRAN (defapress) – US President Donald Trump’s statements on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, are aimed at blackmailing the European Union, a Russian diplomat said.

News ID: 68271

Date: 25 January 2018 - 14:10

“It is difficult to consider Trump’s recent statements as anything other than an attempt to blackmail the European participants in the deal,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to the EU Vladimir Chizhov said.

“They have been holding intensive consultations with each other and Tehran, Iran’s foreign minister has been here,” he told the Tass news agency.

Chizhov stressed that Moscow did not see any reason for amending the JCPOA.

“The IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) is the one to verify the implementation of the document,” he said. “They (IAEA officials) have said many times that Iran has been abiding by the terms of the deal.”

The Russian envoy also said that Moscow had been maintaining dialogue with all the parties to the deal.

He said the European parties, namely Britain, France and Germany, do not seem to be willing to change their position concerning the need to preserve the document in its current form.

“There are no clear signs that the European members of the six-party group (Russia, China, France, Germany, Britain and the US) have changed their position seeking to support the US,” Chizhov went on to day.

Earlier this month, Trump waived a series of sanctions against Iran as required under the JCPOA, but warned the European allies and the US Congress that it will be the last such waiver he signs if they fail to agree to radical changes to the nuclear deal.

With his announcement, Trump in effect began a four-month countdown until the US carries out its threat to withdraw from the JCPOA. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has made it clear that the JCPOA is a valid international document that would not be renegotiated at all.

Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna in July 2015, the IAEA has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.