Iran appears determined to further revise its nuclear commitments

Tabnak – Despite showing a strong commitment to continuing diplomatic interactions with the Europeans to find a way for saving the nuclear deal, Iran has made it clear it won’t hesitate further revising its nuclear commitments should the other sides fail to live up to their own undertakings. Recent remarks by the Iranian officials suggest this scenario is becoming more and more possible.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the country will go ahead with the third phase of scaling back its nuclear deal commitments under the “current circumstances”.

“We have said that if the JCPOA is not fully upheld by other signatories, we will also reciprocally scale back our commitments and this is, indeed, all within the JCPOA framework,” Zarif said on Saturday.

Tehran has rowed back on its nuclear commitments twice in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the 2015 deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Zarif underscored that it is only up to Iran to decide whether or not to keep reducing its obligations.

Iran says its reciprocal measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from unilateral US sanctions which were imposed last year when President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.

Zarif has also said the JCPOA Joint Commission members have reached a consensus that the US government is held accountable for all the turmoil. “Iran’s demands have been definite and clear since the beginning, and it has not expected anything beyond the JCPOA,” he said.

Tehran has made clear that if the other parties do not implement the JCPOA in full, it will also carry out the deal partially, although all Iranian measures have been within the framework of the JCPOA, the minister underlined.

On the calls on Iran to refrain from taking the third step to reduce its JCPOA commitments, Zarif said, “It is within the purview of the Islamic Republic to make a decision about it, and if the commitments of the foreign parties to the JCPOA are not met, this step will be certainly taken in line with the previous measures.”

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) that came into force in January 2016.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.

However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.