JCPOA Ministerial Meeting Scheduled for Dec. 21

Representatives of Iran and five remaining parties to the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action convened an online meeting on Wednesday where they scheduled a ministerial meeting for Dec. 21.  
“Participants agreed on holding an unofficial meeting of the foreign ministers of JCPOA member states on Dec. 21 through videoconferencing,” Secretary-General of European External Action Service Helga Schmid said in a statement following the meeting, ISNA reported.   
The JCPOA Joint Commission held a meeting at the level of deputy ministers and political directors on Wednesday via videoconference due to the situation arising from the coronavirus pandemic. 
The event, chaired by Schmid on behalf of European Union High Representative Josep Borrell, was attended by the representatives of Iran, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and Russia. 
Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi led the Iranian delegation on the online meeting of the parties to the nuclear deal, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
Signed in 2015 between Iran and the six world powers, JCPOA was endorsed by the UN Security Council Resolution 2231. It limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for lifting the UN sanctions, as well as the US and EU unilateral restrictions.
The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and reinstated the anti-Iranian sanctions lifted under the deal.
As the remaining European parties have failed to fulfill their commitments to the accord and compensate for Washington’s absence, Iran moved in 2019 to scale back its JCPOA commitments.

Commission’s Agenda 

Earlier, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh had said the commission would discuss obstacles to the fulfillment of commitments by the signatories during the regular meeting.
“This is an ordinary and regular meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission that is held quarterly at the level of deputy ministers and political directors of the deal’s parties to review the process of implementation of the agreement and obstacles to the signatories’ fulfillment of their commitments,” he said.
During the meeting, Araqchi said the three European parties should not expect Tehran not to implement a law recently passed by the Iranian Parliament that obliges the government to take further steps away from JCPOA since it is against the principles of democracy.  
The European powers released a statement urging Iran not to implement the law that requires the government to increase uranium enrichment and reduce cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog. 
He also censured Europe for always calling on Iran to show restraint against all hostile measures, be it US sanctions or assassination of scientists. 
“Iran cannot bear all the costs of implementing JCPOA and others’ illegal behavior; others should also pay a price,” he said. 
Russian representative to Vienna-based organizations, Mikhail Ulyanov, said in a tweet ahead of the meeting’s start that the main topic would be preservation of the nuclear deal and its full and balanced implementation. 
“The role of US in this regard will inevitably be discussed,” he added. 
US President Donald Trump who withdrew the US from the deal will be out of office in a few weeks and President-elect Joe Biden has vowed to rejoin the agreement if Iran resumed strict compliance. 
Biden, however, seeks follow-on negotiations to include other issues, including Iran’s missile program and its regional activities in JCPOA. European parties have also called for a deal beyond JCPOA. 
Iran has ruled out any amendment to the deal, while refusing to enter talks with the West about those subjects. 
Nevertheless, Tehran has declared that it will reverse all its steps beyond JCPOA limits, as soon as other parties can ensure Iran’s economic benefits promised under the deal. 
During the meeting, Araqchi reiterated Iran’s readiness to fulfill all its JCPOA obligations that were suspended as per paragraphs 26 and 36 of the deal once the US resumes the implementation of its commitments and the agreement returns to its status in January 2017. 
During a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Hassan Rouhani said, “If the P5+1 return to all their commitments, we will return to all our commitments the same hour.”  
Rouhani also said the next US administration is free to choose the right or wrong way, but must take note that the American people’s vote for Biden was a “vote for abidance by law, not law-breaking”.