BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 6. Iran's inability to agree with the world countries regarding its nuclear program does not promise anything positive for the country from an economic point of view, Iranian analyst on economic issues, Mehrdad Emadi told Trend.
According to Emadi, it is possible to assess that if Iran does not reach an agreement with the world countries on its nuclear program, it will obviously pursue uranium enrichment in a military direction.
The analyst added that there is such an opinion that the close relations with Russia and China in foreign policy and economy, will increase the power of the Iranian authorities to continue the ‘iron fist’ policy in the face of foreign problems and domestic discontent.
"Three European countries (the UK, France and Germany), as well as the US and many countries of Eastern Europe, have come to the conclusion over the past 5 months that Iran's economic crisis is due to the country's continuation of the ‘Look to East’ priority - in practice, Iran is linked to Russia and China, and turns it into a satellite of these countries," he said.
Emadi stressed that in this direction, Iran's economic foundations will be destroyed, poverty, hunger, and unemployment will expand, Iran's influence potential in the international arena will decrease, and Iran's power in key contracts in the banking system and energy sector will be reduced to a minimum.
“Currently, new agreements are being formed in the region. Each of these agreements further damages Iran's economy,” the analyst noted.
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.
On May 8, 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran and the 5+1 group (Russia, China, the UK, France, the US, and Germany), and imposed new sanctions against Iran as of November 2018.
Over the past period, the sanctions affected Iranian oil exports, more than 700 banks, companies, and individuals. The sanctions have resulted in the freezing of Iranian assets abroad.
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