British Prime Minister Theresa May is set to talk to Arab leaders of the (Persian) Gulf Cooperation Council that the nuclear deal between Iran and the world powers, including Britain, is crucial for security in the Middle East.
According to excerpts of her speech released by the Guardian on Tuesday and set to be delivered in the Bahraini capital Manama on Wednesday, she will also repeat the West’s anti-Iran narrative.
“That was vitally important for regional security,” the British premier will say of the nuclear agreement.
Iran and the P5+1 group, also including the US, Russia, Germany, China, and France, inked the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in July 2015.
Under the JCPOA, which took effect in January, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related bans imposed against Tehran.
Apart from that, Tehran has time and again asserted that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), it seeks nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes.
The British premier will further claim at the plenary of the (P)GCC that, “We secured a deal that has neutralized the possibility of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons for more than a decade… It has already seen Iran remove 13,000 centrifuges, together with associated infrastructure, and eliminate its stock of 20%-enriched uranium.”
US President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to scrap the deal, a move Tehran says would be met with a tough response.