Tehran Ready to Address JCPOA Breach

Iran's nuclear chief said Tehran has made "the necessary preparations" to address possible breaches of the July 2015 nuclear deal, as US officials are to decide about the future of an anti-Iran sanctions law that expires by the yearend unless it is renewed.

Ali Akbar Salehi said on Monday that the issue has been discussed in details in a meeting of the JCPOA Oversight Committee presided over by President Hassan Rouhani, the head of Supreme National Security Council.

The US House of Representatives passed a bill with a vote of 419-1 last week to renew the Iran Sanctions Act for another decade. The law was first adopted in 1996 to target Iran's energy sector.

"It should pass the Senate and finally be approved by the US president [to become law]," IRNA quoted Salehi, the head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, as saying.

"If [the bill] gets through these stages and becomes operational, then it will definitely be a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," he said, using the formal name of the deal.

The US Republican lawmakers, who control the House of Representatives and Senate and unanimously oppose the historic agreement, have introduced several anti-Iran measures to interfere with its implementation that started in January.

The AEOI chief noted that during two years of nuclear negotiations with world powers, Tehran had been planning to be prepared for a possible collapse of the pact, to take its nuclear activities to the level it was before the deal.

  Big Loser

Salehi said the US will be the big loser.

Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned last Wednesday that if the US Congress bill is passed, Iran would treat it as a breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.

"If the extension [of ISA] is enforced, it would constitute a violation of JCPOA and they should know that it would definitely prompt a response by the Islamic Republic," he said. US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the chamber will vote to pass the bill before adjourning next month.

US President Barack Obama has not announced whether he will endorse or veto the bill, but some White House officials have said he would likely not oppose a "clean" renewal.