News / Politics

Iran rejects step-for-step JCPOA revival: Senior security official

Wednesday, 10 March 2021 8:28 AM [ Last Update: Thursday, 11 March 2021 6:41 AM ]

Top diplomats of Iran, the EU and the P5+1 member states are seen in a photo taken after signing a preliminary nuclear agreement on April 2, 2015, in Lausanne, Switzerland.

A senior security official says Iran is opposed to a step-for-step return to the 2015 nuclear deal, adding that the country only accepts the lifting of sanctions in a verifiable manner before returning to full compliance with the multilateral agreement.

Speaking to Press TV on the condition of anonymity on Wednesday, the security official said that the new US administration has failed to lift the sanctions that the ex-team at the White House imposed on Iran after leaving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018.

According to the official, the only way for Tehran to return to its JCPOA commitments is for Washington to lift all the sanctions.

If the sanctions are not lifted, he added, Iran will take further steps away from its commitments under the deal in the near future.

America’s mere words and superficial actions are unacceptable to Iran, the official said, stressing that the country will only accept the full removal of sanctions following verification.

He added that Iran will not hold any official or unofficial talks with the US before the removal of sanctions.

The security official dismissed talks on topics unrelated to Iran’s nuclear issue, saying the Islamic Republic’s defense and missile capability as well as its regional role have nothing to do at all with the JCPOA.

Leader: Iran will not back down on nuclear issue, will continue to advance based on its needs

Ayatollah Khamenei says Iran will not back down on its right to peaceful nuclear technology and will continue its progress in line with the country’s present and future needs.

In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany, signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was ratified in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

Three years later, however, former US president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the JCPOA and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the deal.

The new US administration, under President Joe Biden, has indicated its willingness to rejoin the JCPOA, but conditioned the move on Tehran’s resumption of the commitments it has suspended under the accord in response to the US withdrawal in 2018 and the other parties’ failure to meet their end of the bargain.

But Tehran says the US, as the first party that reneged on its commitments, should take the first steps towards the deal’s revival and unconditionally remove all the sanctions imposed under Trump in a verifiable manner.

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