The Iran deal should remain inviolable as the basis for further contacts on the Iranian nuclear program, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday, TASS reports.
The Russian presidential spokesman thus commented on a statement by German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the Iran nuclear deal was only the first step and more had to be achieved.
"We know the position of European colleagues to the effect that the deal must be preserved. Whether this is a sufficient or an insufficient step is another question but this is the sole substantive consensus, which was achieved by all the parties concerned as a result of very tense work. That is why, any continuation and improvement of the situation with regard to further settlement can be carried out only on the basis of something substantive and this is exactly the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action]," Peskov said.
"What is the main thing is the inviolability of this deal; otherwise, there will be no platform for continuing contacts and for continuing the dialog," the Kremlin spokesman said.
In July 2015, Iran, five UN Security Council permanent members (Russia, Great Britain, China, the US and France) and Germany reached a deal on settling Tehran’s nuclear problem. The JCPOA, which they drew up, stipulates lifting UN, US and EU sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program. In January 2016, it was announced that the parties concerned had started implementing the Iran nuclear deal, following which Washington lifted its restrictions.
US President Donald Trump has said on many occasions that the Iran deal was a bad deal, claiming that it had failed to prevent the possibility for Tehran to create its nuclear weapons and had only delayed it.
The US president stated on January 12 that the United States would halt its participation in the deal, unless amendments elaborated during negotiations with European countries were made to it.
In late April, a spokesperson for the US administration said that the United States, and also France, Germany and Great Britain had achieved progress at negotiations on the Iran nuclear program but no final solution had yet been found.