Iran Says Will Honor JCPOA Like France
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson made it clear for France that Tehran will remain committed to the 2015 nuclear deal as long as and to the same extent that Paris would honor it.
In a statement on Wednesday, Abbas Mousavi responded to the comments made by French Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll who has warned Iran against departing from the terms of the JCPOA.
“As long as you (France) remain committed to implementing your JCPOA undertakings, we will remain committed as well, and will carry out our commitments exactly like you,” Mousavi said in response to his French counterpart.
His reaction came after Von der Muhll urged Iran to keep implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and warned Tehran that it “will gain nothing” by leaving the deal.
“Putting it (the JCPOA) into question will only increase the already heightened tensions in the region,” she told reporters in a daily briefing on Wednesday.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif deplored the European Union’s continued failure to fulfill its obligations under the 2015 nuclear deal, saying Tehran will comply with its commitments in the same manner as the EU does.
“We have explicitly stated that if Europe is committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), we will also be committed,” Zarif told reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday.
“We comply with our commitments in the same manner as Europe has done,” he said, adding that Iran’s next move to reduce its JCPOA commitments would be the non-commitment to the 3.67% enriched uranium limits under the deal.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) came into force in January 2016.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA on May 8, 2019.
Iran has also set a 60-day deadline for the remaining JCPOA parties to fulfill their undertakings.