News / Nuclear Energy

Renegotiating JCPOA not possible: EU foreign policy chief

Monday, 20 March 2017 9:59 PM [ Last Update: Monday, 20 March 2017 11:03 PM ]

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini attends a debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, on March 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

European Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini has strongly defended Iran’s nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries, pointing out that the International Atomic Energy Agency has five times confirmed Iran’s compliance with its commitments under the July 2015 agreement.

Speaking at an international conference on nuclear policy in Washington on Monday, Mogherini made the remarks in an apparent response to US President Donald Trump's attacks on the nuclear accord. During his presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly vowed to tear up the agreement, and he hardly misses any chance to call it the worst deal ever.

During a meeting with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in the White House on Monday, the billionaire-turned-president told an Iraqi delegation that he was wondering why President Barack Obama supported the deal, and that "nobody" knows why. “One of the things I did ask is, 'Why did President Obama sign that agreement with Iran?' because nobody has been able to figure that one out... But maybe someday we'll be able to figure that one out," Trump said.

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Jim W. Dean, columnist at US foreign affairs journal Veterans Today, believes that Trump is isolating the United States not only with his stance on the Iran nuclear deal but on many other international issues.

In his report on verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), delivered to the IAEA Board of Governors in early March, Director General Yukiya Amano said, “The agency has been verifying and monitoring the implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments under the [nuclear deal, known as the] Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for more than a year."

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The IAEA is monitoring the JCPOA, which was signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany -- on July 14, 2015. Under the JCPOA, whose implementation started on January 16, 2016, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

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