Russian Senators’ Pro-JCPOA Lobbying Welcome

A lawmaker welcomed a move by his Russian counterparts to rally western legislatures behind the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which is facing a serious threat from US President Donald Trump.

"We back and welcome the Russian senators' move to prepare a statement intended to pressure the US Congress to keep the US in JCPOA," Alireza Rahimi told IRNA on Tuesday, referring to the deal by its formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The upper house of Russia's parliament has prepared a statement urging the US Congress, as well as parliaments of other western nations, to do their utmost to keep the pact in place.

"The Federation Council [the official name of chamber] addresses the US Congress members with an urgent request to use all available resources and prevent the extremely dangerous situation. The parliaments must use the influence on political leaders of their countries to keep in force the historical deal concerning the Iranian nuclear program," reads the text of the draft statement, as quoted by RIA Novosti.

The Russian senators also noted that the agreement on the Iranian nuclear program is important because it greatly contributed to the global regime of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and established and tested a model that could be used to resolve similar international disputes.

"At the present time the implementation of this agreement is under threat of complete failure because of US President Donald Trump's declared strategy concerning Iran that stipulates Washington's unilateral actions that violate the [JCPOA] up to full cancelation of US participation in it," the senators wrote in the draft statement.

They also said the US withdrawal from the action plan would very likely lead to some reciprocal action from Iran and prompt it to resume pre-JCPOA nuclear activities. Earlier this month, Trump allowed for the possibility of total termination of the Iran nuclear deal. Trump said in a Cabinet meeting while talking about the Iran nuclear agreement, "We'll see what phase two is. It might be a total termination. That's a very real possibility."

His Cabinet remarks came days after he announced Iran non-compliant with the agreement. That has given congress 60 days to decide whether to reinstate the sanctions suspended under the pact in return for temporary curbs on Tehran's nuclear work.

Trump's decertification announcement drew sharp criticism from other signatories.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that Trump's disavowal of the deal would only harm Washington's credibility, making clear that Tehran would not walk away from the deal, nor would the other parties.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said breaking up the Iranian deal would jeopardize global security.

"Restoring the UN Security Council sanctions [on Iran] is out of the question," he said.

The Russian upper house's Committee for International Relations approved the text of the statement on Monday and the vote on it is scheduled for Wednesday.