Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 28
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
If there is no progress in the forthcoming discussions on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with the European side, Iran will definitely take the third step, head of the Iranian Presidential Administration Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters.
Vaezi made the remarks following the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports referring to IRINN.
Good progress was observed in the discussions with France within JCPOA, he said. Vaezi added that a delegation consisting of Iranian economists will visit France next week to continue the discussions.
Iran would like its rights in the nuclear deal to be fulfilled, he noted.
In January 2016, the JCPOA was implemented between Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions against Iran in November of the same year. In order to preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
The 60-day deadline given by Iran to European countries involved ends on September 7 this year.