Iran’s Third Step in Reducing Nuclear Commitments to Be Stronger: Zarif
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal that if they keep failing to meet their obligations, Tehran’s third step to reduce its commitments under the accord would be stronger than the previous ones.
In a speech at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Zarif pointed to the obligations of the European parties to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and said, “Europe has made 11 commitments (under the deal), including purchasing Iranian oil, investing in Iran and conducting financial and banking exchanges.”
“Europe has been obliged to normalize the trade relations (with Iran),” he said, adding, “We want Europe to live up to its obligations.”
The top diplomat further warned the Europeans that Iran’s third step to reduce its commitments would be stronger than the previous ones.
Zarif went on to say that the Islamic Republic has informed the European parties of its options on the JCPOA.
Last month, Iran declared the second step to reduce its commitments by ramping up the level of uranium enrichment to over 3.67 percent.
Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the JCPOA.
The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the deal.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.
Spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Behrouz Kamalvandi said last week that the country’s enriched uranium stockpile has reached 360 to 370 kilograms.
