BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 30
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran can take another step in reducing the number of commitments within the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), chairman of the nuclear committee of the Iranian parliament's commission on national security and foreign policy Mohammad Ibrahim Rzayi said.
“This depends on whether the European side has fulfilled its commitments or not,” Rzayi added, Trend reports referring to Tasnim news agency.
The chairman said that Iran has so far taken four steps to reduce the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
“Iran is reducing the number of its commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the nuclear agreement,” Rzayi added. “In accordance with these articles, if the commitments of both parties are not appropriate and equal, one party may reduce the number of its commitments.”
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (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.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA.
On Nov. 5, Iran announced that it took the fourth step in connection with reducing its commitments to the nuclear agreement. So, uranium gas is being pumped to the centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.