{"id":16426,"date":"2019-05-09T14:57:09","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T14:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/?p=16426"},"modified":"2019-05-09T14:57:09","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T14:57:09","slug":"araqchi-irans-interests-come-before-jcpoa-quitting-deal-on-agenda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/araqchi-irans-interests-come-before-jcpoa-quitting-deal-on-agenda\/","title":{"rendered":"Araqchi: Iran\u2019s Interests Come before JCPOA, Quitting Deal on Agenda"},"content":{"rendered":"

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said the Islamic Republic has put a “step-by-step” withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], on the agenda.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commenting on Iran\u2019s decision, he said the recent choice was neither violation of the JCPOA nor withdrawal, but it is taking advantage of GCPOA internal tools to meet Iranians’ interests.<\/p>\n

Araqchi further noted that Iran\u2019s 60-day ultimatum will not be extended \u2018unless our interests are being met.\u2019<\/p>\n

“We have not left the JCPOA so far, but we have put such a move on our agenda and that would happen step-by-step,” Araqchi said in an interview on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

“No country can accuse Iran of breaching or leaving the nuclear deal,” he noted, explaining that all the measures Tehran has adopted so far, including Wednesday’s move, has been within the deal’s framework.<\/p>\n

The ambassadors of the countries remaining in the nuclear deal \u2014 France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China \u2014 on Wednesday received a letter penned by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani elaborating the suspension of some of Iran’s commitments under the deal.<\/p>\n

The letter was handed over by Araqchi to the ambassadors of the five countries, who had been invited to the Foreign Ministry. The document specifies the details of the decision taken by Iran\u2019s Supreme National Security Council, which is chaired by Rouhani himself.<\/p>\n

The document states that Tehran has exercised utmost self-restraint and patience since Washington’s exit from the deal last May, and has given the remaining signatories \u201cconsiderable\u201d time at their own request to compensate for Washington\u2019s withdrawal and guarantee Iran\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the other parties have failed to adopt any \u201cpractical measures\u201d to blunt the impact of the economic sanctions that were re-imposed against Tehran by the US following its withdrawal, the statement said.<\/p>\n

The Islamic Republic is thus entitled to restore the balance between its rights and obligations under the JCPOA, and has no option but to \u201creduce its commitments\u201d within the framework of the deal, it added.<\/p>\n

At the current stage, the statement said, Iran will no longer consider itself committed to the limits agreed under the deal on its stocks of enriched uranium and heavy water stocks.<\/p>\n

Under the JCPOA, Iran is allowed to keep 300 kilograms of uranium enriched up to 3.67 percent. The deal requires Tehran to sell off any enriched uranium above the limit on international markets in return for natural uranium.<\/p>\n

Tehran\u2019s stock of heavy water is also restricted to 130 tons under the deal, which also calls for Iran\u2019s excess heavy water to be sold to a foreign buyer.<\/p>\n

The council has given Iran\u2019s partners in the deal \u201c60 days to meet their commitments, especially in the banking and oil sectors,\u201d said the statement.<\/p>\n

If they fail to address Iran\u2019s concerns, Tehran will suspend the implementation of two more commitments under the JCPOA, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

In the next stage, Tehran will no longer be bound by its commitment to enrich uranium up to 3.67 percent and will also begin developing its Arak heavy water reactor based on its pre-JCPOA plans, it added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said the Islamic Republic has put a “step-by-step” withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], on the agenda. Commenting on Iran\u2019s decision, he said the recent choice was neither violation of the JCPOA nor withdrawal, but it is …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":16427,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-news-and-analysis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16428,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16426\/revisions\/16428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wilayah.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}