Iran's partial withdrawal from JCPoA in response to inaction by other signatories

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that Tehran's decision to partially withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal was in response to the failure by the other signatories of the agreement to keep up their promise of providing his country with the relief from US sanctions.

Rouhani added that Iran would be willing to return to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) treaty once the other signatories of the agreement do the same, reported Sputnik.

"We could not remain silent in reaction to the inaction of the other side, and that's why we have done these things, but the other sides should know that at any hour that they come back to the JCPOA, we will return as well; we are still in the deal and all the actions we do are to save the deal", Rouhani said, adding that Iran was "advising the United States and Europe to return to the negotiation table" as "everybody must act based on the JCPOA".

 

The Iranian President added that the move to partially continue its commitments was "not aimed at undermining the JCPOA, but also an attempt to save it; because we believe that if we don't do anything, the deal will be lost"

Citing an "informed source," Iran's Fars news agency on Monday had reported that Iran has exceeded the amount of enriched uranium that it was allowed to have under a 2015 nuclear deal (officially called JCPoA).

The country stopped complying with some elements of the agreement in May, a year after the US unilaterally withdrew from the deal.

The agreement was signed with an aim to limit Iran's civilian energy programme, thereby preventing it from developing nuclear weapons at some point in the future, in exchange for relief from sanctions that were crippling the country's economy.

The deal was hailed as a major diplomatic victory by the Obama administration. However, last year, Donald Trump-led US government had withdrawn from the deal, terming it as "defective at its core".

Washington's decision of pulling out from the agreement soured its ties with Iran. In the past year, the Trump administration has slapped a multitude of sanctions on Tehran citing the latter's support to state-sponsored terrorism and conflicts.