Iran Will Never Accept Renegotiation of JCPOA, Deputy FM Reiterates
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi once again made it clear that the country rejects any new talks on the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“We will never accept renegotiation of the JCPOA. We are also opposed to inclusion of any new article or articles to this deal,” Araqchi said in an interview with al-Masirah news network on Wednesday.
“Adherence to the nuclear agreement means there must be no word added to or removed from it. This is crystal clear,” he said.
The senior diplomat went on to say that the US must lift the sanctions on Iran in order to return to the agreement and for Tehran to fully honor the JCPOA commitments.
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, but in 2018 the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear pact as his administration pursued a “maximum pressure” strategy against Tehran.
The remaining European parties also failed to fulfill their end of the bargain and compensate for Washington’s absence. Since then, Iran has begun to take its own measures in response to the Western parties’ refusal to meet commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.
Iran’s measures to reduce its commitment under JCPOA have been within the framework of the nuclear deal and will not mean withdrawal from it.
However, Tehran has expressed its readiness to reverse the suspension of its commitments only if the US returns to the nuclear deal and lifts all sanctions without any preconditions or if the European co-signatories manage to protect business ties with Iran against Washington’s sanctions as part of their contractual obligations.