Russia, China, Iran and “European Three” advocate for JCPOA

Russia, China, Iran and the main three European countries (UK, France, Germany) have announced their intention to comply with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program (JCPOA was signed in July 2015 between U.S. Russia, China, UK, France, Germany and Iran - EADaily). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made such opening remarks at talks with Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iran Mohammad Javad Zarif Moscow, today, on May 14.

“As far as we know, the above three European countries, China, Iran and Russia have announced their intention to comply with the JCPOA provisions. Today we would like to hold an in-depth discussion of your plans and our common actions in this field,” Lavrov said.

As EADaily reported earlier, Foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov during today’s talks with his Iranian counterpart called the situation around JCPOA as a crisis. Minister Zarif, in turn, said it had turned into a habit for U.S. government to violate international law.

To recall, President Donald Trump abrogated the nuclear deal with Iran and re-imposed sanction on it on May 8. Signed in 2015, JCPOA lifted crippling sanctions imposed on Iran’s nuclear program. In return, Iran agreed to take concrete steps to curb its nuclear program, limiting it to strictly peaceful applications, and to allow comprehensive inspections of key nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ensure compliance.

As Trump said, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action left an opportunity for the Iranian government to make nuclear bombs bypassing the restrictions. At the same time, Trump spoke for a new treaty.

The leaders of Great Britain, Germany, and France, Theresa May, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron called on all the participants to continue implementing the agreements fully. High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini supported the idea to preserve the document. President of Iran Hassan Rouhani said Tehran will not refuse from JCPOA and will observe its commitments.

Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow is disappointed at Washington’s decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal and Trump’s efforts to cover up his attempts to settle political issues with Iran.