Top US Diplomat to Attend JCPOA Joint Commission Meeting in Vienna
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Washington announced that US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon will attend a session of the JCPOA joint commission scheduled to be held in Vienna this week.
“Ambassador Shannon will travel to Vienna, Austria, on January 9-10 to lead the US delegation to a Joint Commission meeting under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regarding Iran’s nuclear program,” according to a recent statement published by the official website of the US Department of State.
It added, “He will be accompanied by Lead Coordinator for Iran Nuclear Implementation Ambassador Steve Mull and experts from relevant US government agencies.”
The joint commission is a group tasked with monitoring commitments to a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers.
The upcoming session will be held in the Austrian capital, after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in mid-December sent a letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, who is also the coordinator of the JCPOA joint commission, calling for a session of the commission to address a recent US congressional bill extending the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another ten years.
The upcoming session will be reportedly preceded by a meeting of the sanctions taskforce at the level of experts.
In his letter, the top Iranian diplomat had asked Mogherini to inform all the parties to the JCPOA about recurring breaches of the deal by the US, make preparations for a JCPOA joint commission meeting, and convene the taskforce in the commission that works exclusively on the sanctions.
It came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on the Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to initiate processes to react to the US government’s violation of the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement reached between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) in July 2015.
The US Senate in December voted 99-0 to extend the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another decade. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives nearly unanimously in November, and congressional aides said they expected Obama would sign it.
On December 15, White House Spokesman Josh Earnest said US President Barack Obama had declined to sign ISA, but had let it become law anyway.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that implementation of the ISA will constitute a “clear and flagrant violation of the JCPOA” and draw a “very harsh reaction” from Tehran.