BAKU, Azerbaijan, Jan. 20
By Elnur Baghishov – Trend:
Iran may cancel the additional protocol on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), if sanctions against Iran on Iran's crude oil sales and bank exchanges are not lifted until February 21, Chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Iranian Parliament, Mojtaba Zonnour told IRIB, Trend reports.
The chairman noted that in this context, the surveillance cameras of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will be removed, and the IAEA inspectors will not be allowed to visit Iran's nuclear facilities.
Zonnour added that Iran's relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency will remain only at the NPT level. At the same time, the IAEA inspectors will not be expelled from Iran.
As reported, the Iranian parliament has recently decided to implement a strategic plan in the nuclear area to lift sanctions, citing the non-implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) signed between the 6 countries and the imposition of sanctions on Iran.
In addition, Iran has again enriched uranium to 20 percent since January 4. At present, Iran enriches 17-20 grams of 20 percent uranium every hour.
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 on Iran in November of the same year.
To preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal started 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 that have 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.
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 Sept.5.
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.
On Jan.2020, Iran took the last fifth step in reducing the number of its commitments within JCPOA.
The US imposed new sanctions on Iran in November 2018. Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals.