Tehran to Unveil Countermeasures to US Withdrawal from JCPOA

Iran is to unveil its countermeasures in response to a move made by the United States last year to withdraw from a landmark 2015 nuclear agreement signed between Tehran and six major world powers.

The plans will be announced on Wednesday, which marks the first anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday.

Despite Washington’s withdrawal, Iran has not left the deal yet, but stressed that the remaining signatories to the agreement have to work to offset the negative impacts of the US pullout for Iran if they wanted Tehran to remain in it. The other parties to the JCPOA have repeatedly announced that the deal is working and should stay in place.

 According to ISNA, Iran’s anticipated measures fall within the framework of articles 26 and 36 of the nuclear accord, though the Islamic Republic is not considering leaving the JCPOA as an option for now.

The report added that partial reduction or total abolition of some of Iran’s commitments in addition to the resumption of some nuclear activities, which had come to a halt under the JCPOA, constitute the Islamic Republic’s first steps in response to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal and European countries’ failure to fully comply with their commitments.

According to the report, Iran is still keeping the door open to diplomacy in order to give the other parties to the JCPOA a second chance to return to diplomacy and quit the erroneous path of unilateralism by proving their full commitment to the nuclear deal with Iran one more time.

EU officials, who have undertaken commitments, but failed to live up to them over the past year, have been unofficially informed of Iran’s new plans, it added.

ISNA also quoted informed sources as saying that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will probably announce the plans during a televised address.

 R.S