TEHRAN - Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to London, said on Tuesday that Iran’s decision to partially scale down its commitments under the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal is only aimed at saving the agreement from a total collapse.

Baeidinejad made the remarks hours after President Hassan Rouhani ordered the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to start injecting uranium gas into advanced IR-6 centrifuges at the Fordow nuclear enrichment facility.

It was the fourth step by Iran to reduce its nuclear commitments in response to the abrogation of the multinational nuclear deal by the Trump administration and return of previous sanctions and an inaction by the European signatories to the deal to offset sanctions. 

“We’re doing this because we want to salvage the nuclear deal from total collapse,” Baeidinejad told Sky News. “Because, in fact, the other sides have not been able to live up to their obligations, and Iran is resorting to certain actions to ensure” that the deal will stand.

Iran took the new measure as the Europeans missed the third 60-day deadline to fulfill their commitments to the deal signed in July 2015 and endorsed by the UN Security Council resolution 2231. 

According to the Press TV, Baeidinejad said in a scenario in which Iran would uphold its nuclear commitments in the absence of similar conduct by the remaining signatories “is not a sustainable situation.”

“So, we’re reducing some of our commitments to give warnings that this situation cannot be continued and urge them (the other parties) to completely agree to implement their share of the commitments,” the ambassador noted, according to the Press TV.

Iran’s outright withdrawal from the accord or its renegotiation — as the U.S. has proposed — would lead to the deal’s “total collapse” and bring “another set of uncertainties,” said the diplomat who helped craft the JCPOA in negotiations with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France) Germany, and the European Union in a course of two years of intensive negotiations.

Ambassador Baeidinejad added “it depends on the other parties” whether Iran would restore its nuclear energy activities to the level that existed before the deal or resort to stronger retaliatory measures.

Under the JCPOA Iran agreed to put limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions.

‘Iran restoring economic confidence’

The ambassador also strongly refuted claims that Iran’s economy was “collapsing” in the face of the U.S. sanctions.

“Our economy is doing much better comparing to the last year, when the sanctions were imposed against Iran. We are regaining our full confidence in being able to recover our economy, and we are on the right track,” Baeidinejad said.

PA/PA