Time to Salvage JCPOA Limited: Iran’s Rouhani
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani reminded the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that efforts to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal should lead to results in a limited period of time.
“If we reach a clear decision on the JCPOA in a limited and specific period of time, we will witness a broader interaction between Iran and Europe,” Rouhani told his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in a telephone conversation on Wednesday.
“Today, we have a historic responsibility to preserve the JCPOA, and history in the future will prove that Trump has made a big mistake,” Rouhani said of the US president’s decision to pull Washington out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“Unfortunately, Europe missed the four-month-long chance that it could use to preserve the JCPOA, and spent that time on convincing the new US administration to stay in the JCPOA,” the president’s official website quoted him as saying.
Denouncing the US exit from the nuclear deal, Rouhani went on to say, “The Islamic Republic of Iran is fully committed to its obligations under the JCPOA and will pursue its interests as it has so far, but unfortunately, the other side has not demonstrated a satisfactory performance.”
For his part, Macron expressed regret over Trump’s decision to withdraw from the deal, stressing, “Europe will cohesively attempt to maintain the JCPOA.”
"Broad cooperation between Iran and Europe is very important for promoting peace and security in the region,” the French president added.
In comments on Wednesday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei urged that any decision to keep the 2015 nuclear deal running without the US should be conditional on “practical guarantees” from the three European parties to the JCPOA, namely France, Britain and Germany.
