EU3 Move to Trigger JCPOA Dispute Mechanism Legally Groundless: Zarif
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the move by France, Britain and Germany to trigger the dispute mechanism in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is legally baseless and politically wrong.
Zarif, who has travelled to India to attend the Raisina Dialogue 2020, held a meeting with Minister of State at the German Federal Foreign Office Niels Annen on the sidelines of the conference in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The senior Iranian and German diplomats discussed the latest developments surrounding the implementation of the JCPOA and also regional developments, particularly the situation in Afghanistan, according to the Foreign Ministry’s website.
In the meeting, Zarif criticized the Europeans’ failure to honor their JCPOA commitments, and slammed their move to trigger the dispute resolution mechanism as baseless in legal terms and a strategic mistake in political terms.
Annen, for his part, stressed that Germany attaches significance to the relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran, adding, “Our stance is defending and supporting the JCPOA, and the spirit of the letter from the three European minsters is not destruction of the JCPOA.”
In May 2018, US President Donald 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.
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.