US President Upset Balance of JCPOA, Says Iran’s Larijani

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani deplored US President Donald Trump’s moves against the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and said he has upset the balance of the international accord.

News ID: 78795

Date: 24 September 2019 - 14:06

In a speech during an open session of the parliament on Tuesday, Larijani reiterated the legislative body’s support for the administration’s “third step” in reducing its commitments under the JCPOA.

“Although certain governments made some unwise statements, Iran’s logic behind this issue is clear,” the parliament speaker stated.

“In the nuclear deal’s balance, we had some commitments in return for the commitments of the other party,” Larijani said, adding, “The president of the United States upset this balance and others did not make the right effort to restore the balance.”

Earlier this month, AEOI Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi announced details of the country’s “third step” in reducing commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He said the reduction of JCPOA commitments related to research and development will facilitate the enrichment of uranium up to a level of 1,000,000 SWU.

Back in July, Iran had declared the second step to reduce its commitments by ramping up the level of uranium enrichment to over 3.67 percent.

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

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the JCPOA.

The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.

On May 8, 2018, Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the deal.

However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.

Kamalvandi recently said that the country’s enriched uranium stockpile has reached 360 to 370 kilograms.

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