JCPOA commission meeting likely due on Dec. 6: Mousavi

The joint commission of the Iran nuclear agreement will hold a meeting at the level of deputy foreign ministers, most likely on December 6, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi said Monday.

The participants of the meeting will discuss latest developments after Iran reduced its commitments to the nuclear deal in the wake of the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 agreement and reimposition of sanctions, Mousavi added, according to Mehr News Agency.

“Iran welcomes diplomatic talks, despite the fact that no result has been achieved through negotiations yet,” the spokesman said.

Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna had announced earlier that the next commission is expected to be held in December.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council

– the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive

Plan of Action (JCPOA), on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the deal, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions.

However, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the international nuclear deal in May last year and stepped up sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Since May this year, Iran has rowed back on its nuclear commitments four times in compliance with the JCPOA.

Iran says its reciprocal measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from unilateral US sanctions, which were imposed last year when Washington withdrew from the nuclear deal.

The European signatories to the JCPOA have so far failed to uphold their commitments. They have expressed vocal support for the deal, but failed to provide meaningful economic incentives as required under the nuclear agreement.