Senior MP Blasts New Sanctions against Iran as Violation of N. Deal

TEHRAN (defapress)- Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini rapped certain European states' attempts to impose new sanctions against Iran under the pretext of convincing the US to keep the 2015 nuclear deal, describing it as violation of the internationally-endorsed agreement.

News ID: 69263

Date: 18 March 2018 - 16:43

"Imposition of new sanctions against Iran to keep the US in the nuclear deal does not benefit us and is fresh damage and a violation of the nuclear deal," Naqavi Hosseini said on Sunday.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's position on the nuclear deal is crystal clear and therefore, if the Americans do not continue the nuclear deal, we will then have no more undertakings under the deal," he added.

Naqavi Hosseini said that the nuclear deal was aimed at removing the sanctions against Iran and any reimposition of embargos will violate the agreement.

His remarks came after Reuters cited a confidential document as claiming that Britain, France and Germany have proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its regional role in a bid to persuade Washington to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

US President Donald Trump delivered an ultimatum to the European signatories on Jan. 12. It said they must agree to fix what he called as the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal - which was sealed under his predecessor Barack Obama - or he would refuse to extend US sanctions relief on Iran.

US sanctions will resume unless Trump issues fresh “waivers” to suspend them on May 12.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araqchi said on Friday that Tehran has reminded the US about its commitments under the nuclear deal in a bilateral meeting with the American side.

On the sidelines of the 8th regular meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Friday March 16, Iranian delegation, chaired by Araqchi, held separate bilateral meetings with the Group 5+1 (the US, the UK, Russia, China and France plus Germany) except for the UK team to discuss issues regarding the implementation of the nuclear deal as well as how to better implement it.

We met with the French, German and Russian delegation on Thursday and on Friday, we met with the Chinese and American delegation," Araqchi told reporters in Vienna after the regular meeting of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA.

"In the bilateral meeting with the American delegation, we only talked about the implementation of nuclear deal and the US violation of its obligations under the deal; we reminded them about a number of issues that we consider to be breaches of obligations or delay in fulfilling their obligations, especially in the area of airline purchasing licenses," he added.