Iran’s Nuclear Chief: European Proposals to Save JCPOA Insufficient
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Ali Akbar Salehi expressed a downbeat view of chances of saving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), saying the proposals that Europeans have made fall below Iran’s expectations.
In a meeting with the United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Norway’s capital of Oslo on Tuesday, Salehi voiced doubts about the possibility of saving the JCPOA in the status quo.
Deploring the US’s “destructive” policies on the JCPOA and its withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Salehi said the European Union’s proposals are not sufficient to fulfill Iran’s expectations.
The benefits of the JCPOA for Iran in the economic, banking and investment sectors fall considerably short of expectations, Salehi said, urging “explicit support” from the UN and European countries for the nuclear deal.
He also highlighted the Islamic Republic’s domestic and regional capabilities, saying the US strategy of countering Iran and its return to the era of pursuing unconstructive policies are doomed to failure.
For his part, the UN chief expressed support for the JCPOA, which he said has a significant and constructive impact on the world security and on preserving the global nonproliferation regime.
Pointing to Iran’s “understandable” political and economic expectations from the European Union, Guterres said he will once again ask the remaining parties to the JCPOA to fulfill Tehran’s expectations.
On May 8, the US president pulled his country out of the JCPOA, which was achieved in Vienna in 2015 after years of negotiations among Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
Following the US exit, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
Meanwhile, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has underlined that any decision to keep the JCPOA running without the US should be conditional on “practical guarantees” from the Europeans.