JCPOA Is No Longer Valid If Any Party Withdraws, Prominent Scholar Says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – An Iranian scientific figure and former diplomat dismissed the idea of honoring the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the US or any other party being excluded from the deal, stressing that Iran should immediately scrap the nuclear agreement if the US walks away.
The US or any other party willing to exit the JCPOA should be mindful that such move would destroy the nuclear agreement and Iran would not feel bound to it anymore, Mohammad Javad Larijani, director of the Iranian Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences said in an interview with Tasnim.
He also stressed that the Iranian administration should have expressed its stances and plans well in advance of the US president’s decision about Washington’s commitment to the 2015 nuclear deal.
It is a grave mistake for the Iranian officials to announce that the JCPOA without the US could be a viable option, Larijani added.
He then explained that a possible fall of the JCPOA does not mean that Iran would not hold nuclear negotiations with the world any more.
As regards the need for Iran to immediately scrap the JCPOA in case of a US withdrawal, Larijani said what matters is honoring the nuclear deal, which has been flagrantly violated by Washington.
Should Trump announce the official US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran must halt monitoring of its nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and restart its nuclear activities, he added.
As regards the possibility of re-imposition of sanctions on Iran under the “catastrophic trigger mechanism” after a failure of the JCPOA, Larijani said a full exit from the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons) could be a rational option for Tehran.
The official finally lauded Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei for his wise comments that Iran would set fire to the nuclear deal if the US tears it apart.
In October 2017, Ayatollah Khamenei warned that Iran would shred the nuclear deal if the US tears it up.
US President Donald Trump faced a May 12 deadline to decide whether to reinstate anti-Iran sanctions, which were lifted under the JCPOA. He had said the US would pull out of the deal unless the European parties agree to fix what he has claimed “flaws” in the agreement until that day.
Trump, however, said on Twitter that he would announce his decision on the Iran nuclear pact at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
