JCPOA Never to Be Renegotiated: Iranian Deputy FM
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian diplomat rejected remarks made by Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick for secretary of state on a revision to the July 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying the agreement can never be negotiated again.
Speaking in his Senate confirmation hearing, Tillerson said on Wednesday he would recommend a "full review" of the nuclear deal with Iran, but he did not call for an outright rejection of the 2015 accord.
In reply, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for American and European Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi told reporters in Tehran on Friday that Iran "has many times reiterated that the JCPOA dossier will not open again at any rate."
Iran will not allow the agreement to be renegotiated and this is the stance of all other member states to the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany), he noted.
The Iranian diplomat further pointed to a recent session of the JCPOA Joint Commission - a group tasked with monitoring commitments to JCPOA – saying that the sessions was held at the request of Iran to deal with the US failure to fulfill its obligations under the deal over the past year.
The meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission took place on Tuesday in Vienna, marking the first year of implementation of the deal.
While the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 came into force in January 2016, some Iranian officials still complain about the US failure to fully implement the accord.
In March 2016, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said Americans have yet to fulfill what they were supposed to do as per the nuclear deal.
Iran still has problems in its banking transactions or in restoring its frozen assets, because Western countries and those involved in such processes are afraid of Americans, the Leader said at the time, criticizing the US for its moves to prevent Iran from taking advantage of the sanctions removal.