TEHRAN – Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that Iran expects European partners to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, to take practical actions to implement the deal.

“Iran expects the European partners to the JCPOA to take practical decision and actions which are effective and responsible in the procedure of implementing the JCPOA,” he stated.

His comments came as France, Germany, and the UK issued a statement on Sunday, expressing their support for the deal.

“We, the leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom, sharing common security interests, in particular upholding the non-proliferation regime, recall our continuing commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that was agreed upon four years ago with Iran, on 14 July 2015,” reads the statement.

The statement added, “Together, we have stated unambiguously on 8 May 2018 our regret and concern after the decision of the United States to withdraw from the JCPOA and to re-impose sanctions on Iran, while this country had implemented its commitments under the agreement - as consistently confirmed by the IAEA until last month. Since May 2018, our three countries have made their best efforts to work with all the remaining parties to the deal to ensure that the Iranian people could continue to benefit from the legitimate economic advantages provided by the JCPOA.”

Mousavi noted that the path of implementing the JCPOA is not “unilateral”.

He added that Iran will remain committed to its obligations under the deal as long as other signatories abide by their commitments.

U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew Washington in May 2018 from the JCPOA, which was reached between Iran and six world powers in 2015.

Afterwards, Washington re-imposed sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the deal and ordered new ones.

On May 8, exactly one year after the U.S. withdrew from the multi-nation nuclear agreement, Iran announced a partial withdrawal from some aspects of the pact, saying that the country would no longer adhere to some of the limits on its nuclear activities. It also threatened to step up uranium enrichment if an agreement is not made within 60 days to protect it from the sanctions’ effects. 

In follow-up to that deadline, on July 7 Iran announced that it has started enriching uranium to a higher purity than the 3.67% as the Europeans missed the 60-day deadline to devise a concrete mechanism to protect the country from the U.S. sanctions.

However, Iran has said if the remaining parties take concrete steps to shield the country from sanctions it will reverse its decisions.

NA/PA