British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s spokesman said on Monday that the United Kingdom’s position on the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, has not changed, FXSTREET reported.

His comments came as U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton visited London on Sunday to urge Britain to toughen its stance on Iran.

In an interview with Reuters in July, Johnson expressed support for the JCPOA.

Caroline Hurndall, the head of the British Foreign Office’s department for Iran and Iraq, tweeted in July after a meeting of JCPOA Joint Commission, “The UK remains committed to the deal.”

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

However, Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the UN-endorsed JCPOA in May 2018 and imposed the toughest ever sanctions against Iran in line with his administration’s “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran.

The remaining parties, particularly the European sides, have failed to honor their commitments since the U.S. reimposed the sanctions.

On May 8, exactly one year after the U.S. abandoned the multi-nation nuclear agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran, Tehran said its “strategic patience” is over and announced a partial withdrawal from some aspects of the pact. 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.

Under the JCPOA, Iran is allowed to possess 300 kilograms of uranium enriched to 3.67 percent. However, Iran’s nuclear spokesman, Behrouz Kamalvandi, announced on Tuesday that Iran’s stockpile of uranium has reached 370 kilograms.

Iran says its decision to reduce its commitments are in line with paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which has provided a mechanism to resolve disputes and allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance. 

Officials in Tehran have insisted if the remaining parties to the JCPOA compensate sanctions effects Iran will reverse its decision.

NA/PA