Senior Iranian Official:

Europeans Underline Commitment to JCPOA

Date: 22 October 2017 - 21:47

News ID: ۴۵۵۸۷

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – A member of Iran’s committee tasked with monitoring the implementation of the 2015 nuclear deal said Sunday that Europe’s approach toward the accord is different from that of the U.S.
Speaking to reporters Ali Akbar Velayati said the Europeans are dissatisfied with U.S. approach lack of commitment to the deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
He made the remarks after a meeting with Raymond Knops, the acting chairman of the foreign affairs committee at the Dutch house of representatives.
Members of the Dutch parliamentary delegation criticized the U.S. failure to remain committed to the JCPOA and reiterated their country’s full commitment to the agreement, Velayati said.
U.S. 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.
Speaking at a nonproliferation conference in Moscow on Saturday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi criticized the U.S. for preventing Iran from benefiting from the JCPOA, warning that such a move "will have its consequences.”
"This negative atmosphere created by the U.S. administration is in fact violation of the JCPOA, preventing Iran from benefiting from sanctions lifting,” Araqchi said.
Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the JCPOA contains a fragile balance of interests "regarding fundamental issues of its participants’ security."
"Any shift of this balance will cause unavoidable collapse of the entire mechanism, and it would be impossible to assemble it in some new form... It is unrealistic to adjust the agreement, as all the issues, which required settlement, were solved this or that way," he told the same conference.