Parliamentary committee to mull U.S. move regarding JCPOA

TEHRAN — A top Iranian lawmaker has said the United States’ new plan regarding the 2015 nuclear agreement will be discussed in an upcoming meeting of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee.
Mojtaba Zonnour said Washington’s return to the deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), must be dependent on full compliance with the accord, Tasnim reported.
Zonnour made it clear that the U.S. will have to fully honor the JCPOA if it intends to return to the agreement, stressing that all of the sanctions that the U.S. has imposed on Iran must be lifted and Washington has to accept the fact that the UN arms embargo on Iran will be lifted in October.
“The Islamic Republic will agree on the return of the U.S. to the JCPOA when the White House and the Europeans carry out the contents of this international agreement,” underlined Zonnour, the chairman of the parliamentary committee.
The MP also pointed to several options Iran has on the table to scrap the JCPOA in case the Western parties resort to the snapback mechanism, saying Tehran may decide to stop implementing the Additional Protocol, review the process of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), or even withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation (NPT).
“Iran has never been eager to pull out of the NPT, unless it has no choice,” he remarked.
The remarks came after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he is preparing a legal argument that the U.S. would remain a participant in the JCPOA as part of an intricate strategy to pressure the UN Security Council to extend an arms embargo on Tehran.
MH/PA
Leave a Comment