JCPOA Withdrawal to Isolate U.S.: Zarif

Date: 06 February 2018 - 22:06

News ID: ۴۹۸۲۱

TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Despite his fervent opposition to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the U.S. president has been unable to scrap the deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, stressing that withdrawal from the multilateral nuclear agreement would make the U.S. internationally isolated.
Donald Trump had pledged in his election campaign that his first priority would be to tear the JCPOA apart, but such thing has not happened after a year since he took the office as the U.S. president, Mohammad Javad Zarif has said in a televised interview on Monday.
The U.S. president’s inner circle has warned him that scrapping the JCPOA would make Washington isolated in the world, Zarif added.
Pointing to Trump’s move to scrap all achievements of the Obama administration, the top Iranian diplomat said Trump has not been able to harm the JCPOA, the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1.
Earlier in January, the U.S. president waived a series of sanctions against Iran as required under the JCPOA, but warned the European allies and the US Congress that it will be the last such waiver he signs if they fail to agree to radical changes to the nuclear deal.
With his announcement, Trump in effect began a four-month countdown until the U.S. carries out its threat to withdraw from the JCPOA. The next sanctions waivers fall due on 12 May.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry has made it clear that the JCPOA is a valid international document that would not be renegotiated at all.
Since the historic deal was signed in Vienna in July 2015, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed the Islamic Republic’s compliance with its commitments under the JCPOA, but some other parties, especially the US, have failed to live up to their undertakings.
Referring to the ongoing crisis in Yemen, Zarif said that four steps must be taken to solve the crisis in Yemen.
"From the first day of the crisis in Yemen, Iran announced that it has a four-step solution: An immediate ceasefire, humanitarian aid, intra-Yemeni talks and an inclusive government," Zarif said.
"What Saudi Arabia did in Yemen has had no result apart from creating anger towards the kingdom and killing children," he added.
Zarif stressed that such foreign-backed fighting is tearing the country apart.
At least 13,600 people have been killed since the onset of Saudi Arabia’s military campaign against Yemen in 2015. Much of the country's infrastructure, including hospitals, schools and factories, has been reduced to rubble due to the war.