Iran MP Urges Firm Action on Possible US Withdrawal from JCPOA
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian lawmaker called on the Foreign Ministry to consider all options to respond to the US administration’s possible withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran’s Foreign Ministry should act in such a way that the US government would have to pay the legal price for scrapping the JCPOA, member of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Morteza Saffari told Tasnim.
The Iranian diplomatic apparatus should put all options on the table to deal with a possible US exit from the nuclear deal, he added, stressing that major decisions should be made after such an event to boost the country’s nuclear activities.
In comments in February, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US would be internationally isolated if it exited from the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
In January, the US president waived a series of sanctions against Iran as required under the JCPOA, but warned the European allies and the US Congress that it will be the last such waiver he signs if they fail to agree to radical changes to the nuclear deal.
With his announcement, Donald Trump in effect began a four-month countdown until the US carries out its threat to withdraw from the JCPOA. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has made it clear that the JCPOA is a valid international document that would not be renegotiated at all.
Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna in July 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
