Iran seeks assurances on nuclear deal after US pullout
VIENNA (AP) — Iran will pull out of a landmark deal to stop the country from developing nuclear weapons unless it receives concrete guarantees that the economic incentives of the pact will be protected by the other parties, following the U.S. decision to unilaterally withdraw and Washington’s threat of sanctions against companies who trade with Iran, a senior Iranian official said Friday.
“We are still complying but we have not decided whether to yet to stay in the deal or not,” the official told a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity. “It depends on the remaining JCPOA participants, if they can actually compensate for the absence of the United States in the deal.”
The other countries involved in the JCPOA, the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Joint Commission, met Friday for the first time without the U.S. after Iran called for an urgent meeting of the body in Vienna. Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia reaffirmed their commitment to the deal, and the Iranian delegation emerged saying they were more confident than before, and made no mention of timelines.
“I think we have good reasons to think we will succeed, provided that, once again, all of us have relevant political will,” said Mikhail Ulyanov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s arms control and non-proliferation department.
The other nations have all previously said they want to stay in the 2015 deal, which limits Iran’s enrichment and stockpiling of material that could be applied to a nuclear weapons program. In exchange, Tehran was granted widespread relief from international trade, oil and banking sanctions.
Speaking ahead of the Vienna talks, the Iranian official said that for his country to stay in the deal, the relief granted would have to be guaranteed by the other parties involved and that Tehran needs specifics on how that will happen by the end of May. Tehran will make its final decision in a “few weeks.”
The official said that in theory the deal can survive without the U.S., but acknowledged “in practice I’m not sure.” He acknowledged the timeline was tight, but said that European nations had “wasted” the past few months trying to convince President Donald Trump not to pull out of the nuclear deal over his contention it was not tough enough on Iran. Among other things, Trump said the deal needed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and involvement in regional conflicts while the others had argued those issues could be negotiated separately.