Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Monday that China and Iran have reached a broad consensus on the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA.

“China and Iran agree to expand cooperation for a complete and effective implementation of the deal in order to safeguard international order based on international law,” she said, according to China Radio International.

She also said, “United States withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the extreme pressure on Iran led to an increasing strain of the situation, which could cause the final breach of the contract.”

During a joint press conference with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu in Beijing on Sunday, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Seyyed Abbas Araghchi said that the JCPOA is an international agreement and the world is responsible for implementing it.

“The JCPOA is an international achievement and the countries in the world are responsible for respecting, implementing and preserving it,” he said.

Ma said that multilateralism and rule of law are required to preserve the JCPOA.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions on Iran.

After waiting for a full year, Iran said its “strategic patience” is over and started to gradually reduce its commitments to the nuclear deal in response to the U.S. moves.

So far, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) has taken four steps to cut back commitments in accordance to paragraph 36 of the JCPOA which “allows one side, under certain circumstances, to stop complying with the deal if the other side is out of compliance.”

Iran has repeatedly said if the European parties to the nuclear deal shield its economy from the U.S. sanctions it will reverse its decisions.

NA/PA