Russia expects JCPOA to be back in effect before July 14

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told a briefing on Thursday that Russia expects that the talks on the return of the US to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be successfully completed by the sixth anniversary of the Iran nuclear deal - July 14, TASS news agency has reported.

According to the spokeswoman, consderable progress has been seen at the talks on the Iran nuclear deal in Vienna. "Over these three months, the delegations have managed to achieve substantial progress in coordinating the parameters and modalities of the process to restore the JCPOA. They also managed to determine the response and the sequence of the moves that the US and Iran are to make, as well as to analyze how the corresponding commitments will be formalized and their checks ensured," she added.

Along with the revision of restrictions against Iran imposed by the US, it is a priority to "restore as soon as possible the verifying activity of the IAEA in Iran to the degree envisaged by the Joint Plan of Action," she said. These agreements have no sensible alternative, "and without them security measures are getting more vulnerable," the diplomat stressed.

Meanwhile, no practical moves are seen from the US for now of abandoning its policy of pressuring Iran, Zakharova added.

Iran has already held six rounds of talks with JCPOA participants known as the P4+1 with the aim of salvaging the JCPOA in the Austrian capital of Vienna. Tehran has insisted that it would resume full compliance with the deal after the full removal of the sanctions that the previous US administration under Trump illegally imposed on Tehran after its unilateral and illegitimate withdrawal from the JCPOA in May 2018. 

Tehran has already stressed that it would leave the Vienna talks if they take too long and if its legitimate demands as per the JCPOA are not met. Anyway, the other parties, especially the Europeans seem to be killing time as the new US administration is still sticking to the Trump-era sanctions.

Tehran has also said that it does not attach any importance to the US return to the agreement if the sanctions are still in place. The current US administration has not yet fulfilled the promises Joe Biden made during his presidential elections campaigns to undo Trump's actions and return to the deal.

KI/TASS