TEHRAN – A top lawmaker says the Islamic Republic is ready to take the fourth step of scaling back its commitments to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.

“Given the lack of commitment by the European side and failure to fulfil their commitments until now, the Islamic Republic of Iran definitely has the fourth step of reducing its Barjam (JCPOA) commitments on the agenda, unless the Europeans take practical measures to fulfil their duties before the fourth step,” Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, the spokesman for the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, tweeted on Sunday evening.

Washington withdrew from the internationally-endorsed JCPOA with Iran on May 8, 2018, reimposed the toughest-ever sanctions against the country and started a plan to zero down Tehran’s oil sales.

Under the nuclear agreement, Tehran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of economic and financial sanctions.

Following the U.S. withdrawal, Iran remained fully committed to the JCPOA for a year, but announced on the anniversary of Washington’s bellicose move that its “strategic patience” is over and would gradually reduce its commitments to the deal at 60-day intervals, which were designed as deadlines for Europe to protect Tehran’s interests under the deal.

So far, Iran has taken three steps in that regard.

In the first step, Iran removed cap on its nuclear deal stockpile which was limited to 300 kilograms enriched to purity of 3.67 percent. In the second step, which started on July 7, Iran started enriching nuclear fuel to more than 3.67 percent. And in the third step, which fell on September 6, Iran removed ban on nuclear research and development (R&D).

Tehran has repeatedly said its measures will be revered as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from unilateral U.S. sanctions.

In another tweet on Monday, Naghavi Hosseini explained that in the first, second and third steps, Iran ended restrictions regarding research, uranium enrichment capacity and uranium enrichment stockpile.

He then suggested that in the fourth step, Iran will reduce the level of supervision of its nuclear activities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

MH/PA