Iran deputy FM warns US on violation of JCPOA: There will be a price to pay

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi speaks at a non-proliferation conference in Moscow, Russia, on October 21, 2017.

A senior Iranian diplomat has criticized the United States for preventing Iran from benefiting from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries, warning that such a move “will have its consequences.”

“This outpost, negative atmosphere created by the US administration is in fact violation of the JCPOA (the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), preventing Iran from benefiting from sanctions lifting,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said at a non-proliferation conference in Moscow on Saturday.

“I tell you it is totally unacceptable and it will have its consequences. The situation is as bad as it is in Iran as it is in Washington, I have to tell you,” he added.

He once again stressed the importance of fully implementing the JCPOA by all its signatories and said the nuclear deal could by no means be re-negotiated.

“We don't see any possibility of re-negotiation, for any addition, for any annex, for any add-on, for anything for the JCPOA,” said Araqchi, who was a senior member of the Iranian team negotiating with the P5+1 countries.

He emphasized that the JCPOA “should be implemented in full and Iran should benefit from the dividends of this deal, otherwise we would have a serious problem.”

US President Donald Trump delivered an anti-Iran speech on October 13, in which he said he would not be certifying Iran’s compliance with the terms of the JCPOA under a domestic American law, kicking a decision to Congress on whether to restore sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

The US Congress has been waiving those sanctions as part of American obligations under the nuclear deal. But the domestic US law requires presidential certifications of Iran’s compliance every 90 days. Trump has twice before offered that certification.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the JCPOA, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.

European Union foreign ministers held a closed-door meeting, chaired by EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, on the best way to proceed on the Iran issue in Luxembourg on October 16. They reaffirmed their support for the historic nuclear agreement and said the accord was working and was a key part of non-proliferation efforts.

The top EU diplomats urged US lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran and warned against the serious consequences for regional peace of a failure to maintain the international agreement backed by the UN Security Council.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

The JCPOA is regarded as the most significant diplomatic success for the EU in several decades.

Speaking to reporters on October 17, Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said the Islamic Republic would not accept European countries’ call for the attachment of conditions to the JCPOA.

“Saying that they [the Europeans] endorse the JCPOA but should negotiate on regional issues and Iran's missile program makes the JCPOA conditional, and this is not acceptable to us at all,” Velayati said.

He urged European parties to the nuclear deal to exercise more care in their remarks.


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