US violations of JCPOA destructive, warns Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned that the United States’ repeated violations of the landmark nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would have a “destructive” impact on the deal’s implementation.

“The recurrent breaches of commitments by the US government and its move to impose new sanctions on Iran have had negative impacts on Iran’s public opinion,” Rouhani said in a meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini in Tehran on Saturday.

“They can be destructive in the course of the implementation of the JCPOA,” he added.

He emphasized that the Iranian Parliament would certainly pass legislation to reciprocate the new US measures.

He said the JCPOA played a leading role in promoting regional stability and improving Iran’s relations with world countries and added that all sides shoulder a heavy responsibility to safeguard this agreement.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has always remained committed to implementing the JCPOA and will fulfill its commitments as long as the opposite side does not violate it,” Rouhani said.

He stressed the importance of the “immediate and complete” implementation of “an important part” of the JCPOA that facilitates Iran’s economic, banking and trade relations with other countries.

“There are very appropriate grounds for investment in Iran in various sectors such as energy, oil, gas and petrochemistry and we can have good cooperation with Europe in all fields in line with the expansion of relations,” the Iranian president pointed out.

Rouhani further said Iran saw no obstacles to promotion of relations with the EU and expressed hope the two sides would further boost cooperation on various regional and international issues.

“Iran and the European Union took positive and important steps to expand relations and cooperation over the past four years and these ties will be very important at a time that different parts of the world, particularly the Middle East region, are experiencing concerns, tensions and numerous complicated problems,” he stated.

All sides must safeguard JCPOA: Mogherini

Mogherini, for her part, said all the negotiating sides to the JCPOA and the international community are duty-bound to make efforts to fully and properly implement the deal, stressing that the agreement does not belong to only one side.

She added that the JCPOA has had very good outcomes for Iran and the EU and said the bloc seeks to draw up a comprehensive plan to fully implement the deal.

The JCPOA was inked between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016.

Under the deal, which was later endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of all nuclear-related bans imposed on the Islamic Republic, among other things.

The administration of US President Donald Trump, which took over in January 2017, one year after the JCPOA came into force, has, however, slapped sanctions on Iran in violation of the nuclear deal.

Mogherini arrived in Tehran Friday night to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Rouhani. On Saturday, she held separate meetings with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

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