Zarif: JCPOA parties must guarantee Iran will be compensated

The Iranian foreign minister wrote a letter to his counterparts on the unlawful withdrawal of the US from the 2015 nuclear deal, saying that for the accord to stay alive, the remaining signatories need to guarantee that Iran would be “unconditionally” compensated with the return of American sanctions.

Mohammad Javad Zarif published a copy of the letter on his Twitter account on Thursday, calling for action in the face of Washington’s “ever-expanding economic bullying,” which poses a threat to “not just the accord, but multilateralism and the rule of law,” Press TV reported.

The letter comes amid efforts by Tehran and its partners in the 2015 deal – France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – to keep the agreement in place after US President Donald Trump announced last month that Washington was walking out and slapping the nuclear-related sanctions back on Iran.

The two sides are now seeking to devise a mechanism to both save the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – as the deal is formally called – and help protect the Iranian interests that could be hurt when US sanctions fully take effect in November.

Tehran has urged the other signatories, the Europeans in particular, to give assurances that Iran would still be able to fully benefit from the JCPOA without the US, which has already begun throwing a wrench in Europe’s business deals with Iran. Zarif wrote, “If JCPOA is to survive, the remaining JCPOA participants and other economic partners need to ensure that Iran is compensated unconditionally through appropriate national, regional and global measures.”

Iran’s ‘unquestionable right to reciprocate’

“In line with Iran’s commitment to legality and the peaceful resolution of international disputes, the Islamic Republic of Iran has decided to resort to the JCPOA mechanism in good faith to find solutions and to determine whether and how the remaining JCPOA participants and other economic partners can ensure the full benefits that the Iranian people are entitled to derive from this global diplomatic achievement,” he added.

Zarif further said the very terms of the JCPOA and UN Security Council Resolution 2231 – which endorsed the agreement— gives Tehran the “unquestionable” right to take “proper action” in the face of “numerous unlawful acts by the US, particularly its withdrawal from the agreement and its unilateral re-imposition of all sanctions.”