Iran’s FM: JCPOA Withdrawal to Isolate US

TEHRAN – Despite his fervent opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the US president has been unable to scrap the deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, stressing that withdrawal from the multilateral nuclear agreement would make the US internationally isolated.

Donald Trump had pledged in his election campaign that his first priority would be to tear the JCPOA apart, but such thing has not happened after a year since he took the office as the US president, Mohammad Javad Zarif said at a television talk show on Monday, according to the Tasnim News Agancy.

The US president’s inner circle has warned him that scrapping the JCPOA would make Washington isolated in the world, Zarif added.

Pointing to Trump’s move to scrap all achievements of the Obama administration, the top Iranian diplomat said Trump has not been able to harm the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

Earlier in January, the US president waived a series of sanctions against Iran as required under the JCPOA, but warned the European allies and the US Congress that it will be the last such waiver he signs if they fail to agree to radical changes to the nuclear deal.

With his announcement, Trump in effect began a four-month countdown until the US carries out its threat to withdraw from the JCPOA. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has made it clear that the JCPOA is a valid international document that would not be renegotiated at all.

Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna in July 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.

M.Wassouf