BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 22
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
The Iranian government has not discussed the decision about Iran’s withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), head of the Iranian Presidential Administration Mahmoud Vaezi told reporters.
Vaezi made the remark following the meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, Trend reports referring to IRNA.
“Of course, this issue is in the Iranian government’s competence but other structure must make a corresponding decision,” head of the Iranian Presidential Administration added.
“In a letter to the heads of the 4 + 1 group (Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in May of last Iranian year, the Iranian president announced that Iran wants to remain in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and fulfill its commitments on the condition that other parties of the nuclear agreement fulfill their commitments,” Vaezi said.
“The Iranian president said that if the US or any party tries to send Iran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council, then Iran will make tougher decisions and one of them will be withdrawal from NPT,” Vaezi said.
The UK, France and Germany issued a statement regarding Iran's suspension of its obligations within JCPOA and announced that they launched a process to resolve nuclear disputes. If problems are not solved in this process, the matter will be discussed at the UN Security Council’s meeting.
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, 2019, 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.
Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA. Iran no longer faces any restrictions on its nuclear program.