Washington: The United States considers Iran to be far from complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday.
“Iran is a long way from complying,” Psaki said. “Our focus is on working with our partners and allies to engage and coordinate on a range of issues, including the future of the Iran nuclear deal.”
Psaki said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has a virtual meeting with his E3 counterparts later this afternoon.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif asked European stakeholders to help synchronize the US and Iran’s return to compliance with the pact after Washington’s pullout from the deal in 2018 prompted Tehran to gradually breach some of the limits set in the agreement.
On Monday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry reaffirmed Iran’s intentions to limit the implementation of the Additional Protocol on inspections of its nuclear sites starting February 21. Earlier this month, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that by the end of February Tehran was going to reduce the presence of UN inspectors in the country.
In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 group of countries (the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom – plus Germany) and the European Union. It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the arms embargo five years after the deal’s adoption. The Trump administration exited the deal in 2018.
In December, Iran passed a law to increase its uranium enrichment and stop UN inspections of its nuclear sites in response to the killing of nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. At the start of January, Iran’s atomic energy organization announced that the country had succeeded in enriching uranium at 20 percent at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.(Sputnik)
US Considers Iran ‘Long Way From Complying’ With Nuclear Agreement – White House
