In an interview with ICANA, Zarif said the JCPOA Joint Commission members have reached a consensus that the US government is held accountable for all the turmoil.
“Iran’s demands have been definite and clear since the beginning, and it has not expected anything beyond the JCPOA,” he said.
Tehran has made clear that if the other parties do not implement the JCPOA in full, it will also carry out the deal partially, although all Iranian measures have been within the framework of the JCPOA, the minister underlined.
On the calls on Iran to refrain from taking the third step to reduce its JCPOA commitments, Zarif said, “It is within the purview of the Islamic Republic to make a decision about it, and if the commitments of the foreign parties to the JCPOA are not met, this step will be certainly taken in line with the previous measures.”
On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA, a 159-page nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) that came into force in January 2016.
Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the accord.
However, the EU’s failure to ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments under JCPOA, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA, but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.