Lavrov says that the move will reduce chances for JCPOA survival, Interfax reported.
In a statement on Tuesday, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Abbas Mousavi announced the country' stance towards the decision made by France, Gernmany and UK to activate the dispute mechanism in the Iran nuclear deal.
Considering the decision as a passive measure, Mousavi said after withdrawal of the US from the JCPOA, the deal was left in an unbalanced and unstable condition, which made the Islamic Republic to refer the issue to the joint JCPOA commission, where suitable solutions were ratified, regarding the US as the main culprit for the predicament.
“However, after a year, the European side was not successful in fulfilling its obligations and this made Iran to reduce its JCPOA commitments in five interval steps taken under sections 26 and 36 of the nuclear deal,” the statement said.
France, Britain, and Germany confirmed on Tuesday that they had triggered the dispute mechanism in the Iran nuclear deal, but said they were not joining the United States campaign to exert maximum pressure on Tehran.
"We have therefore been left with no choice, given Iran’s actions, but to register today our concerns that Iran is not meeting its commitments under the JCPOA (Iran deal) and to refer this matter to the Joint Commission under the Dispute Resolution Mechanism, as set out in paragraph 36 of the JCPOA," the three European states said in the statement, according to Reuters.
The nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was a deal struck between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members — the United States, Russia, China, France and the UK — as well as Germany and the European Union.
The treaty has come under increasing strain ever since President Donald Trump announced the US withdrawal from the deal in May 2018 and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Iran despite global criticism.
Earlier this week, the US president urged other signatories of the deal to pull out of what had remained of the JCPOA, promising to impose new economic sanctions on Tehran.
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