Barring US, All Parties Reiterate Commitment to Iran Nuclear Deal

Barring the US, the remaining parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or the Iran nuclear deal reaffirmed their commitment to the agreement on Tuesday, September 1. This was at the Joint Commission meeting at Vienna. The participants reiterated their opposition to the move by the US to reimpose snapback sanctions against Iran

Delegates from Iran, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany, in a statement released by  European External Action Services, the co-host of the meeting, recognized that the deal “is the key element of the global nuclear non-proliferation architecture, as endorsed by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.”

Helga Schmid, Secretary General of the European External Action Services, tweeted after the meeting that all the participants were united in preserving the deal.

Fu Cong, official of the Chinese Foreign Ministry and a member of the Chinese delegation, said the delegates reiterated their position in the meeting that since the US has withdrawn from the deal, it has no right to ask for snapback sanctions against Iran. Xinhua News Agency quoted him as saying that, “momentum needs to be maintained.” Cong also said that all the differences between the remaining parties of the deal would be resolved within the framework of JCPOA Joint Commission.

The delegates also welcomed Iran’s understanding with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the last week of August according to which Iran has allowed inspection of its nuclear sites.

The participants decided to continue lending their support to Iran’s Arak modernization project. Russia, China and Britain have been involved in the modernization of this heavy water research reactor after the signing of the JCPOA in 2015. The US had exempted the modernization work from the sanctions it imposed after withdrawing from the JCPOA in May 2018. However, it announced the end of those waivers in May this year which raised fears of halt of work by these countries.

This article was first published in Peoples Dispatch.