Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 10
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran and the US are the key players in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), said Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Trend reports citiing ISNA.
He said that the other members are third-party players and they are gradually becoming outsiders of the deal. He added that one of the key players quit the nuclear deal, while the other still adheres to the deal.
“The Europeans had no position in this game,” he said. “As Iran takes gradual steps to reduce its commitments, the European side continues to demonstrate an unclear stance.”
He noted that therefore, Iran should reduce its two-month period of reducing JCPOA commitments to one month.
“The reality is that the European side hasn’t yet taken steps to protect the nuclear deal,” he said. “This agreement doesn’t need mechanisms such as INSTEX.”
He noted that if the European side had met its obligations, a $70 billion contract between Iran and the EU would have been implemented and the agreement would have been saved.
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 ended on Sept. 6 this year.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges as part of the third step of reducing commitments in the JCPOA.