BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 14. There is no interim deal with Iran regarding the JCPOA, Spokesperson for the US State Department Matthew Miller said during a briefing, Trend reports.
"There have been a number of reports, some of them false, in the last number of days. I will say a few things about that. Number one, we have always had the ability to deliver messages to Iran when it’s in the interests of the United States to do so. Number two, as we have made clear since the beginning of this administration, the President is committed to ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon. And we believe that diplomacy is the best means to accomplish that, though we have been – also been clear that we have taken no option off the table," he said.
Earlier, Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the Iranian nuclear negotiation team, said that there are no direct or secret discussions between Iran and the US on Iran's nuclear program.
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.