The return of the United States to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program will become possible with the lifting of sanctions against Tehran and if Iran fully fulfills its obligations. This was announced on February 8 by Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna.
Ulyanov noted that during preliminary discussions, the option under which the United States would lift its sanctions against Iran without returning to the JCPOA was not considered.
Russia’s Permanent Representative in Vienna noted that it is important to establish contact between the United States and Iran for the progress on the nuclear deal.
“Of course, in order to move forward, contact is needed, first of all, between Tehran and Washington. As far as I understand, the Iranians are not yet ready for bilateral contacts with the Americans, but a multilateral unofficial meeting of the current JCPOA members and the Americans may be acceptable for everyone, “Ulyanov added in a conversation with RIA Novosti.
Mikhail Ulyanov noted that the most important thing now is to start a discussion and outline a plan for further actions, which would help to return to the normal functioning of the transaction in the shortest possible time.
On February 4, Moscow expressed its readiness to cooperate with the new US administration on the JCPOA issue. According to the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Iran’s actions to renounce its obligations under the treaty do not go beyond the framework of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT).
An agreement between Iran and a group of states – the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain, France and Germany – was signed in 2015 in order to overcome the crisis over Tehran’s nuclear developments. Sanctions were lifted from Iran in exchange for refusing to develop its nuclear program.
In 2018, Washington withdrew from the JCPOA, after which it launched a campaign to exert economic pressure on Iran by renewing sanctions. In response, Iran announced in 2019 a phased reduction of its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research. In November 2020, the States added four people and six organizations to the Tehran sanctions lists, and then expanded the sanctions list several times.