Iran to Take Next JCPOA Step, Shamkhani Warns Europe
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani warned the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that their failure to honor the agreement will leave Iran with no other option than taking the next step to roll back its JCPOA commitments.
“Tehran has started different steps to reduce its peaceful nuclear commitments in order to maintain and balance its commitments under the JCPOA and if the Europeans fail to fulfill their obligations, we will take the fifth step,” Shamkhani said on Sunday.
After the US pullout from the JCPOA, the three European parties to the deal vowed to guarantee Iran’s economic interests in accordance with the JCPOA and to keep the deal alive, but they have so far failed to implement practical measures to save the agreement, he deplored.
“It was the US President Donald Trump who started to reduce the JCPOA commitments by exiting the JCPOA and after that, Europe completed the US measures by ignoring its JCPOA commitments,” the top Iranian security official added, Press TV reported.
Shamkhani’s remarks came after British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab claimed in a tweet on December 17 that the three European parties remain committed to the JCPOA, but Iran’s steps will jeopardize its future.
In May 2018, Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA.
Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.
The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal, including a rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.
