The upcoming session will be held in Vienna, after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in mid-December sent a letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, who is also the coordinator of the JCPOA joint commission, calling for a session of the commission to address a recent US congressional bill extending Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) for another ten years.
The upcoming session will be reportedly preceded by a meeting of the sanctions taskforce at the level of experts.
In his letter, the top Iranian diplomat had asked Mogherini to inform the whole parties to the JCPOA about recurring breach of the deal by the US, make preparations for a JCPOA joint commission meeting, and convene the taskforce in the commission that works exclusively on the sanctions.
It came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called on the Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to initiate processes to react to the US government’s violation of the JCPOA, a nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) that took effect in January.
Earlier in December, the US Senate voted 99-0 to extend the ISA for another decade. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives nearly unanimously in November. The renewal of ISA took effect on December 15 with a procedural protest from President Barack Obama, who decided to let the legislation become law without his signature.
President Hassan Rouhani had already warned that implementation of ISA will constitute a “clear and flagrant violation of the JCPOA” and draw a “very harsh reaction” from Tehran.