Iran has no option but to reduce further JCPOA commitments: MP

TEHRAN (defapress) – In the current situation, Iran has no choice but to continue reducing its commitments to the nuclear deal (JCPOA), a Board member of Parliament’s national security commission said on Thursday.

News ID: 79763

Date: 02 January 2020 - 21:55

The current situation forces our hands to take the fifth step in reducing commitments to the JCPOA, a Board member of Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission told Mehr on Thursday.

While censuring the European countries’ lack of commitment to the nuclear deal, Mohammad Javad Jamali said “We do not currently see any difference in the positions of the three European signatories – Germany, Britain and France – with that of the United States. They are all in opposition to Iran.”

He went on to add, “the Europeans’ mission was to keep Iran in the JCPOA by a soft-spoken agenda, while the US mission was to pull out of the nuclear deal and have a hard confrontation with Iran. Now, both sides have come to a common conclusion.”

Meanwhile, the international community is convinced that Iran has fulfilled all of its commitments to the agreement and has taken no action contrary to its obligations, the MP added.

“If the Europeans do not live up to their commitments, we will definitely take the fifth step,” he stressed.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the agreement and later reimposed the sanctions that had been lifted against Tehran as part of the agreement.

In response to the move, and in the face of E3’s failure to safeguard Iran’s economic interests against the US sanctions, Tehran began taking measures to reduce its commitments to the JCPOA in a bid to create a balance between its rights and obligations and also to encourage the other parties to live up to their own share of commitments to keep the agreement alive.

Message end/