TEHRAN – A member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has said Iran will continue to reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear pact, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), without hesitation.

“Iran, despite all the threats, will take the next step in reducing its commitments to Barjam (JCPOA),” ISNA on Wednesday quoted Alaeddin Boroujerdi as saying.

Boroujerdi also said the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) is responsible to decide on the issue.

The fact of the matter is that the other side has violated the deal, he said.

“Regardless of the U.S. withdrawal from Barjam, the Europeans have not fulfilled their commitments and are condemned in any international court,” the veteran lawmaker added.

Under the nuclear agreement Iran signed with the 5+1 nations in July 2015, Tehran agreed to put limits on its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of economic and financial sanctions. The IAEA was tasked to monitor Iran’s compliance with the agreement.

But in May 2018 U.S. President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA and reinstituted sanctions on Iran.

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the U.S. withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

Iran started to partially reduce commitments under the nuclear deal exactly a year after the U.S. abandoned the deal and imposed the harshest ever sanctions on the country under the “maximum pressure” policy. At the time Iran announced that its “strategic patience” is over.

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

However, Tehran has repeatedly said its measures will be reversed as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from sanctions.

‘No hope for implementation of INSTEX’

Boroujerdi also said Iran has no hope that INSTEX will be implemented by the Europeans.

“We have no hope to implementation of INSTEX by Europeans.”
INSTEX is a barter mechanism devised by the three European states party to the JCPOA to circumvent U.S. sanctions on Iran.

Boroujderdi, who served as deputy foreign minister in the 1980s and 1990s and chairman of the Parliament National Security and Foreign Policy Committee for more than a decade, said “Europeans, through repeated hollow promises, are avoiding their responsibility to implement JCPOA.”

MH/PA