TEHRAN – MP Mohammad Javad Jamali, who sits on the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has criticized the E3 (France, Germany and Britain) for their weak reaction to the violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the official name for the nuclear deal.

According to the JCPOA, signed between Iran and the E3 along with the U.S., Russia and China in July 2015, Iran agreed to put limits on its nuclear work in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions. However, Donald Trump quit the deal in May 2018 and restored sanctions that had been lifted under the accord and added new harsh ones. 

By withdrawing from the JCPOA, the United States violated the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 that endorsed the deal. Tehran has called the sanctions as economic terrorism.

On May 8, exactly one year after the U.S. abandoned the deal, Tehran began to partially reduce its commitments to the agreement at bi-monthly intervals.

In the first stage, Iran announced that it will not limit its stockpile of the nuclear fuel to 300 kilograms allowed under the deal. However, on that date (May 8) Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said if the remaining parties to the JCPOA, especially Europeans, devise a mechanism to protect it from the sanctions effect in the two-month deadline it will reverse its decision. 

But since European parties missed the deadline, on July 7 Iran announced that it has started enriching uranium to a higher purity than the 3.67%, thereby starting the second step.

As Europe missed the second 60-day deadline, Iran moved to take the third step, removing ban on nuclear research and development (R&D).

In a letter on September 5, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif notified European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini about Iran’s third step.

MJ/PA