President Hassan Rouhani is expected to remind the world in the ongoing United Nations General Assembly sessions about Iran's significant role in turning the 2015 nuclear deal into an international accord, telling Tehran's adversaries, especially the US, that Iran would never allow a return to the era of "sanctions and threats", a lawmaker said.
"Had Iran not fulfilled its duties toward JCPOA, this accord would not have become an international regime that others take it as an example for solving global crises, like North Korea," Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh wrote in a recent article published by the Persian daily Arman Emrouz.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel had recently said she would be prepared to become involved in a diplomatic initiative to end the North Korean nuclear and missile program, and suggested that nuclear talks that culminated in the Iran nuclear pact could be a model.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was an international agreement hammered out over 18 months of arduous negotiations. China, France, Germany, Russia, Britain, the US and Iran reached the deal in July 2015 and started implementing it in January 2016.
The International Atomic Energy Agency has regular access to nuclear sites inside Iran and verifies that it is implementing its side of the deal; in exchange, the US, UN and EU lifted nuclear sanctions.
The UNGA's gathering of leaders from 193 member states, known as the General Debate, is held on Sept. 19-25.
President Rouhani, who was reelected in May, has attended all General Debates since he first took office in 2013, and is slated to deliver a speech at the UN on Wednesday.
UN Showdown
Describing the speeches by Rouhani and US President Donald Trump as the "UN showdown", Falahatpisheh called on the president to seize the moment and "mention Iran's achievements in the region and its role in the defeat of Daesh", he said, using an Arabic acronym for the self-styled Islamic State terrorist group that took swathes of Iraq and Syria in lightning attacks in 2014-15.
Iran was instrumental in controlling and crushing the terrorist group by sending its military advisors, at the request of Damascus and Baghdad, to help the governments quash foreign-backed militancy.
"[The president] should raise the US backpedaling on JCPOA and tell them that Iran would never return to the era of sanctions and threats," Falahatpisheh said, alluding to the harsh stance of the Trump administration regarding the deal.
Under a framework the US Congress established with the previous administration, the White House is required to certify Iran as being in compliance with the pact every 90 days. So far, Trump has twice signed off on such certifications, but officials in his administration have clearly been looking for pretexts to blame Iran and quit the deal.
Trump has also approved new sanctions against Tehran for developing missile technology and alleged human rights issues, which have nothing to do with Iran's civilian nuclear program.
Falahatpisheh pointed to IAEA's repeated verification of Iran's commitments, saying that "even if Trump takes the risk and declares Iran non-compliant, the world's attention would then be turned to IAEA's reports that would vindicate Iran."
