TEHRAN - Kamal Kharrazi, the head of Iran’s Strategic Council on Foreign Relations, said on Saturday that the U.S. has violated the spirit and text of the 2015 nuclear deal, adding preserving the agreement is contingent upon Europe’s commitment.

It is essential that European countries stand up against the United States’ violation of the deal, he said during a meeting with Wolfgang Schussel, the former Austrian chancellor, in Tehran.

Kharrazi noted that economic interaction between Iran and the European countries should be expanded under the umbrella of the nuclear deal.

Schussel, for his part, said that Europe will make any effort to preserve the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In his new Iran strategy declared on October 13, U.S. President Donald Trump decertified the nuclear deal and asked Congress to decide about the fate of the agreement. 

Congress now has to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under the deal. Trump said if Congress does nothing he himself will terminate the deal.

The nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, was signed by Iran, the European Union, Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia in July 2015. The agreement went into effect in January 2016.

Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said on Friday that the European Union will make sure that the nuclear deal “will continue to be fully implemented by all, in all its parts”.

During a meeting with Mogherini in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for EU’s more active role in implementing the JCPOA.

Zarif was in Samarkand to attend the International Conference on Security and Sustainable Development.

NA/SP