TEHRAN - Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that the United States must admit that it made a wrong decision to quit the 2015 nuclear deal, urging the White House to return to the pact, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In an interview with IRNA published on Tuesday, Straw said that the United States’ withdrawal from the JCPOA had “no logic”.

He also said that U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal because Barack Obama, the former U.S. president, signed it.

Ben Rhodes, former Obama’s adviser, said in July that Trump quit the JCPOA, because Obama negotiated it.

“Did anyone really need a leaked document from the UK Ambassador to know that Trump pulled out of the Iran Deal because Obama negotiated it?” Rhodes tweeted.

Kim Darroch, the former British ambassador to the U.S., has said Trump seemed to be discarding the Iran nuclear deal for “personality reasons,” as the deal had been agreed to by Obama, the Daily Mail reported in July.

Darroch said the Trump administration was “set upon an act of diplomatic vandalism” in its decision to abandon the JCPOA.

Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear deal in May 2018 and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on Iran.

On May 8, exactly one year after the U.S. abandoned the deal, Tehran began to partially reduce its commitments to the agreement at bi-monthly intervals.

In the first stage, Iran announced that it will not limit its stockpile of the nuclear fuel to 300 kilograms allowed under the deal. However, on that date (May 8) Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) said if the remaining parties to the JCPOA, especially Europeans, devise a mechanism to protect Iran from the sanctions' effect in the two-month deadline it will reverse its decision. 

But since European parties missed the deadline, on July 7 Iran announced that it has started enriching uranium to a higher purity than the 3.67%, thereby starting the second step.

Again, as Europe missed the second 60-day deadline, Iran moved to take the third step, removing a ban on nuclear research and development (R&D).

In a letter on September 5, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif notified the European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini about Iran’s third step.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that Tehran is ready to take the fourth step to reduce commitments under the JCPOA.

“We hope that we would witness special action by the remaining countries to the JCPOA, otherwise Iran is ready to take the fourth step,” Mousavi said in a regular press briefing.

Mousavi added that the mechanism for the next step (fourth step) has been devised.

Iran’s next step falls in early November.

Reportedly, in the next step, Iran intends to limit nuclear inspections by the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency. 

Mousavi also said Iran’s action in reducing its commitments is within the framework of the JCPOA and the Europeans have no right to complain about it.

NA/PA