A spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini — a guarantor of the 2015 pact — broke the news on Thursday, saying that "we've called on Iran to reverse these steps and to refrain from further measures that would undermine the nuclear agreement," Associated Press reported.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran’s Arak heavy water nuclear reactor – which was agreed to be redesigned under a 2015 nuclear agreement – will resume its previous activities after July 7 if the other signatories to the deal fail to uphold their end of the bargain.
“As of July 7, the Arak reactor would be restored to its former condition, which they [other parties] used to claim was ‘dangerous’ and could produce plutonium” if the other deal partners fail to fully act on their commitments under the accord, he said.
Rouhani added Iran’s decision concerning the reactor could only be reversed “if they [the other signatories] act on all of their commitments concerning the facility.”
The nuclear agreement was initially reached between the P5+1 group of states — the United States, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany — and Iran in Vienna in July 2015.
Under the JCPOA, Iran agreed to redesign the 40-megawatt research reactor, which is located in the central Iranian Markazi province, to cut its potential output of plutonium.
The fate of the deal has been in doubt since last May, when the US pulled out and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that it had lifted under the document.
Bowing to Washington’s pressure, Europe has been throwing only verbal support behind the agreement ever since, refusing to guarantee the Islamic Republic’s business interests in the face of American bans despite being contractually obliged to do so.
The decision concerning the reactor is among the countermeasures, which Iran began this May in reaction to the US’s withdrawal and the other parties’ failure to keep their side of the agreement.
Elsewhere in his remarks on Wednesday, Rouhani said Iran would, in addition, surpass the limit placed by the nuclear agreement on the level of purity of the uranium it produces when the July 7 deadline set by Tehran for the remaining deal partners expires.
MNA/PR