TEHRAN - A Russian lawmaker says Tehran is right in accusing the U.S. of stalling the process of implementing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly called the nuclear deal.

Igor Morozov, a member of the Federation Council’s (upper house) International Affairs Committee, told TASS in an interview that “Americans must fully comply with the treaty the way Iran does”.

“Our position on abiding by the terms of the agreement on the Iranian nuclear deal is as follows – we believe that the treaties must be observed,” he stressed.

“If sanctions are to be lifted under the terms of the reached agreements, they must be lifted. If the U.S. is to return the money frozen under these sanctions, it must be returned,” the lawmaker noted.

He also added that Tehran is quite right in accusing the U.S. of stalling the implementation of the nuclear deal. “Iran simply has no time, it must make up for the time when the country was under a trade embargo,” the Russian lawmaker insisted.

“The Iranians must build a new system of relations with their partners, they must urgently restore the economic infrastructure, and first of all in the oil sector, and for this, money is needed. That is why the U.S. is obliged to return these means to Iran, as well as to contribute to the normalization of Iranian banks’ relations with the global financial community,” Morozov stressed.

Commenting on the recent U.S. sanctions against 25 individuals and entities linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps after Iran’s ballistic missile test on January 29, Morozov said, “For now, this is one of the fundamental problems preventing Iran’s full cooperation with its economic partners”.

The Foreign Ministry of Iran said in a statement that the new U.S. sanctions are “contrary to the U.S. commitments and the spirit of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231”. The resolution endorsed the nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world powers including the U.S.

According to the deal, sanctions on Iran must be terminated in exchange for a limit on Tehran’s nuclear program.

U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized the nuclear deal, calling the pact a “disaster”, “the worst deal we’ve ever made” and a “nuclear holocaust”.

Iran denies that its ballistic missile test was in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal, which calls upon Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.”

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the country’s missiles are “not designed for the capability of carrying a nuclear warhead”. He added that Iran is only developing ballistic missiles to defend itself.

KB/PA