Tehran: Iran’s atomic chief has said his country will not completely implement a 2015 nuclear deal if the Western sanctions on Tehran are not fully lifted and the other parties do not honour their obligations under the agreement.
President of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Mohammad Eslami, made the remarks on Wednesday on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran, while elaborating on the country’s nuclear activities and cooperation with the IAEA, according to the official news agency IRNA.
He said the E3 group of France, Britain and Germany cannot expect Iran to fully implement the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as none of them are fulfilling their obligations under the deal, Xinhua news agency reported.
He noted that Iran’s nuclear measures are being implemented based on a law passed by the Iranian parliament in 2020 to counter US sanctions, adding the country will continue the same trend by the time the sanctions are not fully removed.
The parliament’s law mandated the government to restrict inspections of Iran’s nuclear facilities by the IAEA and accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear programme beyond the limits set under the JCPOA.
With respect to the AEOI’s cooperation with the IAEA within the framework of the safeguards agreements, Eslami said Iran has provided the necessary explanations and submitted many documents to the agency during negotiations, stressing the outstanding cases and issues of difference between the two sides have been reduced from four to two.
Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The US, however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.
The talks on the revival of the JCPOA began in April 2021 in Austria’s capital Vienna. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.
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