TEHRAN - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Tuesday called the July 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and great powers “balanced” for which there is no “alternative”.

On the basis the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the sanctions against Iran must be lifted in exchange for a limit on Tehran’s nuclear activities. 

The accord signed between Iran, the European Union, Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – Russia, China, the U.S., France and Britain – went into force in January 2016.

However, the new U.S. president, a vocal critic of the JCPOA, has vowed a revision of the nuclear deal, a move which other parties has strongly opposed.

“The JCPOA is a useful and beneficial agreement which benefits Iran and the international stability and security and we reject any attempt to rewrite and review it,” Ryabkov told reporters before his meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi in Tehran.

Ryabkov who represented Russia in drawing up the nuclear agreement said Moscow is trying to convince the U.S. that there is no alternative for the JCPOA.

In a statement issued in April, the U.S. Department of State notified Congress that Iran is complying with the nuclear deal.

While admitting that Tehran has honored the accord fully, the U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said, “President Donald J. Trump has directed a National Security Council-led interagency review of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.”

On July 20, 2105, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution endorsed the nuclear deal.  

European foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on June 13 that she was confident the United States would stick to the nuclear accord, despite its protestations to the contrary, as the deal is working.

“I am confident that the review in the United States will bring to wise decisions, which means keeping something that is working,” she told a news conference on the margins of a peace mediation conference in Oslo.

“In any case the European Union will guarantee that the deal keeps, that we stick to that ... and that our policy of engagement with Iran continues,” European Union’s chief diplomat asserted.

On June 29, 2017, the UN Security Council renewed support for Iran’s nuclear deal, underscoring that Tehran has shown full commitment to the accord and the resolution supporting it.

Briefing the Security Council, Jeffery Feltman, the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, said: “The Secretary-General believes that the comprehensive and sustained implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will guarantee that Iran’s nuclear program remains exclusively peaceful, while allowing for transparency, monitoring and verification.” 

Araqchi, the deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, also said the JCPOA Joint Commission will convene in Vienna on July 21.

The Joint Commission consisting of all the parties to the nuclear agreement is established to monitor the implementation of the JCPOA and carries out the functions provided for in the deal.  It addresses issues arising from the implementation of the JCPOA and operates in accordance with the provisions as detailed in the relevant annex.   

NA/PA