Iran’s Parliament to Discuss Motion on Withdrawal from Additional Protocol


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A senior Iranian lawmaker said the parliament plans to discuss a motion to counter the US government’s unilateral moves against the country by withdrawing from the Additional Protocol and resuming heavy water production.  

“When Donald Trump announced that he was going to walk away from the JCPOA, a number of MPs and I drafted a plan to counter this move by the US president, and presented it to the presiding board of the parliament with 86 signatures,” Head of the Nuclear Committee of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Hojatoleslam Mojtaba Zonnoor told Tasnim.

The motion is still on the agenda and will be raised at an open session of the parliament, the lawmaker said.

He added that according to the motion, if the Europeans fail to provide the necessary guarantees after the US withdrawal from the JCPOA, the Iranian administration should stop voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol.

Also, Zonnoor stated, Iran’s uranium enrichment and heavy water production should be carried out to the extent required by the country, and withdrawing from the NPT should be considered by the administration.

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.

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.