Nothing in JCPOA to Change, No New Party to Be Added: Iran’s President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – President of Iran Hassan Rouhani dismissed the idea of including new members in the 2015 nuclear deal, asserted that none of the JCPOA articles would change, and called on the new US administration to rejoin the agreement that its predecessor scrapped in “cyclic insanity”.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani made it clear for the international community and the JCPOA parties that not a single article of the nuclear deal would change.
“Moreover, nobody will be added to the JCPOA. The 4+1 may become 5+1 once again (if the US rejoins the deal), but nobody else would be added and it won’t become 5+2,” the Iranian president, urging the other parties to avoid ill-advised comments.
President Rouhani was apparently responding to his French counterpart's recent comments about a need for a new nuclear deal with Tehran that would involve Saudi Arabia.
He said the door is open for the US to return to the JCPOA and stop violating the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
“There were seven chairs. We the six members have remained on our chairs. One of the members (the US) have exited (from the JCPOA) with cyclic insanity. Now that it has wised up to some extent, it had better return to its chair,” the president added.
“We feel the world politicians, the world’s public opinion and even the US politicians believe that the JCPOA could be useful for the peace, security and interaction of the international community and the countries,” he noted.
President Rouhani reiterated that Iran will resume honoring the JCPOA in full as soon as the US returns to the UNSCR 2231 and respects the law.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world states —the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China— and was ratified in the form of Resolution 2231.
However, the US under former president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reinstated the sanctions that had been lifted by the deal.
As the remaining European parties failed to fulfill their end of the bargain and compensate for Washington’s absence, Iran moved in May 2019 to scale back its JCPOA commitments.