Document on Restoring JCPOA at High Level of Readiness for Adoption: Russia


TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Monday that the document for returning to full implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is at a high level of readiness.

"Now the document is at a high degree of readiness for adoption. There are some political problems, which are not related to the finalization of the text. Everything that is required in terms of finalizing the document itself can be done literally within a few days," Ryabkov said.

"As it has been repeatedly noted, Russia has worked for the result, and in terms of our interests, including in the context of peaceful nuclear cooperation with Iran, the text is quite satisfactory (for us), in our opinion, there is nothing to ‘fine-tune’," he said, according to TASS.

In this regard, Ryabkov said that if representatives of the US administration say that the agreement is "out of reach," it means that they "broadcast the results of their internal discussions." According to him, Moscow takes these statements into account.

"On the other hand, according to Iranian sources and the signals that came in, including in light of the recent stay in Tehran by the European External Action Service's Deputy Secretary General Enrique Mora, I can't say that anything has changed," the diplomat continued, "We are what they call on edge, and it could happen very quickly if the political decisions in the capitals are in favor of it. We would welcome that."

The nuclear agreement was signed on July 14, 2015 following two and a half years of intensive talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council as well as Germany.

In 2018, then US president Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal. The current head of the US administration, Joe Biden signaled a willingness to rejoin the agreement and talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in Vienna, Austria.

On March 11, 2022, a break was taken in Vienna after eight rounds of talks to restore the JCPOA to its original form and bring the US back into the agreement due to external factors. Prior to that, the Vienna talks had reached the finish line and were expected to be completed by the end of February. The text of the agreements reached was agreed upon and is about 20 pages long, outlining further steps to return to the nuclear agreement in its original form.