Call for Iran’s Return to Full JCPOA Compliance Unreasonable

Iran’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna said calling on Iran to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal while it is deprived of its legitimate benefits is “neither reasonable nor practical”. 
“While the deal was effectively and fully implemented by Iran … it was not implemented on the sanctions lifting side, especially during the past two and a half years,” Kazem Gharibabadi said in a Thursday address to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, according to the full text of his speech. 
He was responding to a statement by France, Germany and the United Kingdom to the agreement, in which they had restated their call on Iran to reverse its steps away from the deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. 
“It is now critical that Iran immediately reverses its steps and returns to full compliance with the JCPOA without further delay,” the three European parties said in the statement published by the British government’s website.
Iran resorted to the provisions of the deal and scaled back its commitments a year after the United States’ unilateral withdrawal in 2018 and its reimposition of tough sanctions that the European Union and its three powers have not been able to compensate for in spite of their feeble efforts. 
“The EU/E3 didn’t fulfill their sanctions-related commitments and commitments related to the civil nuclear cooperation with Iran in this period,” Gharibabadi said. 
In the statement, the E3 expressed serious concern over what they called Iran’s “numerous, serious violations of its nuclear commitments”, saying the actions are “hollowing out the core nonproliferation benefits of the deal”. 
Gharibabadi said it is the US withdrawal and its subsequent coercive measures as well as lack of full and effective implementation of the JCPOA commitments by EU/E3 members to remedy the situation that has posed serious challenges to the deal. 
“As a result, the deal has lost its balance of commitments, leading to the loss of the perceived benefits for Iran,” he underlined. 
“Considering the imposition of unlawful sanctions by the US as well as the inert position of others, one couldn't expect Iran to stand idle as if nothing has happened and do nothing in relation to its commitments under JCPOA,” he said. 
Referring to IAEA’s latest report on Iran released on Tuesday, the three European powers highlighted Iran’s enrichment, uranium stockpile, advanced centrifuges and activity at Fordow facility to be contrary to JCPOA and areas of deep concern.
They also said Iran must cease undertaking any research and development of advanced centrifuges contrary to the provisions of JCPOA and urged it not to proceed with the installation of advanced centrifuges at the Fuel Enrichment Plant at Natanz, changing the location of its research and development activities and increasing the overall number of centrifuges installed at FEP.
Gharibabadi said overstating the levels by which Iran has exceeded the JCPOA limits and expressing concerns in this regard “can only be considered as endeavors to shirk their responsibility of non-implementation of their commitments during the past two and a half years”.
France, Germany and Britain said in their statement that they have consistently expressed regret over the US pullout and pressure campaign against Tehran and claimed to have worked hard to preserve the agreement. 
“We have lifted sanctions as foreseen by the JCPOA and taken additional efforts to allow Iran to pursue legitimate trade, by developing the financial mechanism INSTEX.” 
The system called Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges was devised by Europe to allow trade with Iran on a non-dollar basis so as to bypass US sanctions, but its negligible transactions have failed to address Iran’s economic concerns.  
“They [the E3] are strongly recommended to implement their commitments under the deal and the [United Nations] Security Council Resolution 2231 [that endorsed the deal] to bring this derailed train to its proper track,” he said.
Iran has announced repeatedly that all steps will be reversed immediately once it can again enjoy the promised economic benefits that it has been almost entirely deprived of due to US sanctions and threats. 
“Whenever the lost balance between the rights and commitments of JCPOA participants as stipulated by the deal is restored through lifting sanctions and implementing commitments in this field, Iran is ready to reverse its remedial actions,” the Iranian envoy said.