TEHRAN - Josep Borrell, new European Union foreign policy chief, has said that the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, must survive.

“We have greatest interest in preserving the nuclear deal and its surviving. We want the Iranian officials to do whatever they can to keep the agreement alive,” Borrell told the Spanish daily El Pais on Sunday, IRNA reported.

He also noted that killing the nuclear deal will be a “big mistake”.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the multilateral nuclear pact in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions on Iran.

After waiting for a full year, Iran started to gradually reduce its commitments to the nuclear deal in response to the U.S. and an inaction by the remaining parties, especially Europeans, to shield Tehran from sanctions effect.  

So far, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has taken four steps to cut back commitments in accordance to paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which “allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.”

Iran has repeatedly said if the European parties to the nuclear deal protect its economy from the U.S. sanctions it will reverse its decisions.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs and nuclear negotiator, told a press conference in Beijing on Sunday that the international community has a responsibility to save the nuclear accord.
 
 
NA/PA