President Hassan Rouhani says the UN arms embargo against the Islamic Republic would be lifted by the next year if the country manages to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal, which has been challenged by the US withdrawal in 2018.

“If we keep the JCPOA in place, we will make a great political and security achievement by the next year,” President Rouhani said during a public address in the central city of Rafsanjan, Kerman province, on Monday morning in the course of his provincial tour.

“Iran has been banned by the UN from purchasing arms for years; based on the [nuclear] deal, if we preserve the pact till the next year, the arms embargo against the country will be lifted,” he added.

In 2015, Iran and six major powers (five member states of the United Nations Security Council — Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China — and Germany) agreed on the final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which particularly stipulated the removal of sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.

However, the fate of the Iran deal has been in doubt since May 2018, when the US abruptly abandoned the deal and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that it had lifted as part of the JCPOA.

On the other hand, Iran says the European cosignatories — Britain, Germany, and France — have so far failed to uphold their commitments. They have expressed vocal support for the deal but failed to provide meaningful economic incentives as required under the nuclear agreement.

Tehran has so far scaled back its commitments to the deal in four steps within the legal framework of the deal, saying the retaliatory measures are aimed to push the other parties to live up their responsibilities and preserve the landmark agreement.

Source: Mehr News Agency