Baku, Azerbaijan, Sept. 4
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
The third step in ceasing Iran's fulfillment of its commitments as per the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will accelerate the activities of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), as was said by Iranian President Hasan Rouhani at a meeting of the Iranian Cabinet of Ministers, Iranian presidential office's director for communications and information Parviz Esmaeili wrote on Twitter, Trend reports.
The Iranian president said that Iran's third step is of a very important nature.
"I do not think it is possible to reach a conclusion with the European side, neither today, nor tomorrow," he said.
Rouhani added that the European side will be given 2 months’ time for forming a constructive dialogue between the two parties and facilitating Iran’s going back to fulfilling its commitments.
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.