After expressing US readiness to participate in talks with Iran and European countries to return to the nuclear deal, London surprisingly accused Iran of breaching its JCPOA commitments and called on Tehran to return to its commitment under the nuclear deal.
Britain claimed on Friday that Iran must come back into compliance with the nuclear deal and that the West should not send signals that it is prepared to overlook Tehran’s breaches of the accord, Reuters reported.
“I don’t think that we should be sending a signal that we are going to overlook this non-compliance or just brush it under the carpet,” claimed James Cleverly, Britain’s junior foreign minister who covers the Middle East and North Africa in an interview with BBC.
“This is in Iran’s hands, they are the ones breaching the conditions of the JCPOA, they are the ones that can do something about this, and they should come back into compliance,” he again claimed.
His claims came while former US President Donald Trump withdraw the US from the deal and reimposed sweeping economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
After the illegitimate US exit from the JCPOA in May 2018, the three European signatories to the deal remained indifferent to making up for Iran’s losses.
Amid the Europeans’ lack of action, Iran took five steps to reduce its commitments to the deal while vowing that it will reverse the course as soon as the other parties live up to their commitments under the accord.
Recently, the Iranian parliament passed a bill, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions in early last December, setting a Feb. 21 deadline for Biden to lift the US sanctions. Otherwise, Iran will halt inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and further boost uranium enrichment.
Iran has so far resumed 20% uranium enrichment at Fordow plant in accordance with the Parliament’s legislation and has warned that in the case Washington does not remove all the anti-Iran illegitimate sanctions, it will also stop voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol, which gives IAEA inspectors unannounced visits to Iranian facilities.
The Joe Biden administration said on Thursday it was ready to revive a 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers that former president Donald Trump abandoned in 2018 before reimposing sanctions on Iran.
In reaction to the White House retreat from the snapback mechanism, FM Zarif said that the US unconditionally and effectively must lift all sanctions imposed and re-imposed by Trump in compliance with Resolution 2231.
The Islamic Republic of Iran has emphasized that for Tehran, the return of the United States to the JCPOA is not an important issue, but what is important is the lifting of US sanctions against Iran.
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