Signatories Should Stick To Iran Nuclear Deal: UN Official

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified several times that Iran is sticking to its commitments in the nuclear deal, and so should all other signatories to the pact, Iranian media quoted the director of the United Nations Information Center (UNIC) in Iran, Maria Dotsenko, as saying.

According to IRNA and Fars news agencies, Dotsenko said that United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres had expressed concern over the United States withdrawing from the Iran nuclear deal, as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is commonly known.

The UN will continue to support Iran’s government and nation, and will help the government to provide special packages to the most vulnerable people in Iran, in order to reduce the effect of the U.S. sanctions on Iran’s financial and oil sectors, the Iranian news outlets quoted Dotsenko as saying.

Iran will not be complying with the “fully illegal” U.S. sanctions, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said earlier this month, in yet another defiant statement from Tehran after the American sanctions on Iran’s oil and shipping industry snapped back in early November.

“We believe that we should not comply with the illegal sanctions against Iran,” Reuters quoted Zanganeh as saying.

While it stays under U.S. sanctions, Iran will not be discussing the volume or the destination of its oil exports, the Iranian oil minister noted.

The U.S. re-imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil industry and exports in early November, but it also granted waivers to eight key Iranian customers to continue importing oil from Iran for a six-month period until early May 2019.

Despite the fact that the U.S. is not looking to grant any waivers to Iranian oil customers when the current ones expire, it shouldn’t be taken for granted that no waivers will be issued, according to the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, and to analysts and an official with the previous U.S. Administration.