Speaking after a video conference of officials from the countries in the JCPOA deal, Maas said that Iran should avoid taking any tactical steps that would make it hard for US President-elect Joe Biden to reverse Donald Trump's decision to quit the deal, Reuters reported.
"To make possible a rapprochement with the US under Biden, there should be no further tactical maneuvers of the kind we've seen too many of in the recent past," he claimed.
“We are standing at a crossroads today,” Germany’s Maas said, adding that the deal’s survival or otherwise will be determined in the coming weeks and months.
"This chance, this last window of opportunity, must not be wasted,” he stressed.
The foreign ministers of the remaining parties to the 2015 nuclear deal – Iran, Russia, China, the UK, France and Germany – issued a joint statement at the conclusion of their informal online meeting on Monday.
According to the statement, the 4+1 group and Iran stressed the necessity of implementing the UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
The members of the JCPOA reaffirmed their commitment to preserving the agreement. They discussed some issues including the necessity of full and effective implementation of the agreement by all parties and the current challenges to the JCPOA.
Iran showed to the world the peaceful nature of its nuclear program by signing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action with six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015. The nuclear deal was also ratified in the form of a UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
However, Washington’s exit in May 2018 and the subsequent reimposition of unilateral sanctions against Tehran left the future of the historic agreement in limbo.
Tehran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to fulfill their end of the bargain by offsetting the impacts of Washington’s bans on the Iranian economy.
As the European parties failed to do so, Tehran moved in May 2019 to suspend its JCPOA commitments under Articles 26 and 36 of the agreement covering Tehran’s legal rights.
MR/PR