Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that the option to withdraw from the nuclear deal is on Iran’s agenda should the remaining parties fail to comply with their commitments.
Addressing the Islamic Republic’s decisions about the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the deputy minister said that the decisions cannot be translated as Iran’s violation of JCPOA or pulling out of it.
“We have scaled down our commitments to JCPOA. This is our right to do so. We take advantage of the instruments included in the nuclear deal to remain in JCPOA but we have leaving the deal on agenda but we will do that gradually,” he explained.
“The other side knows our demands and what they should do. President Rouhani described it in his letter to them. If they seek to reactivate the UN Security Council resolution, they are informed of what we will do. Those resolutions are our redlines,” the senior official added, as quoted by Mehr news agency
“It is about two years that Iran has been coping with Trump and the extremist US government, who believe in JCPOA as the worst agreement in US history that has allowed Iran to expand its authority in the region, sell oil freely and fortify its economy under it. The US, in addition, has withdrawn from chapter VII of Security Council,” he said.
Araqchi explained that Trump was primarily resolved to make Iran pull out of JCPOA but when he failed to achieve that, he left the agreement eventually and re-imposed sanctions.
It is almost a year that the US is out of the nuclear agreement and Iran has given Europeans, China and Russia enough time to compensate the US-led sanctions, he added.
Describing the stance of 4+1 countries, he said that “China and Russia have had a definite reaction. As (Russian FM Sergei) Lavrov said today’s situation is the result of the US policies. Chinese are assessing the conditions and they know that Iran is right.”
“Europeans could not protect our economic benefits but regarding political issues they stood against the US and that is valuable. We are waiting for them to announce their clear stance after their meeting on Thursday,” Araqchi added.
He reiterated that Iran wants full implementation of the JCPOA and will not hold new round of talks in this regard.
Source: Iranian media
