TEHRAN - Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee has received a plan to study Iran’s possible withdrawal from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The plan has so far been signed by 19 MPs, ISNA reported on Saturday.

The Iranian government is duty bound to immediately quit the NPT and stop all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if Iran’s nuclear case is referred to the United Nations Security Council under the dispute mechanism of the JCPOA triggered by the European sides, the MPs said in their letter to the parliament speaker. 

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that Iran will raise the issue of quitting the NPT if the Europeans refer Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

“If they (Europeans) take any action, the issue of quitting the NPT will be raised based on the letter of the President dating May 2018,” Zarif told ICANA in an interview published on January 20.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European states signatory to the JCPOA, issued a joint statement on January 14, announcing they have formally triggered the dispute mechanism which could bring the issue before the UN Security Council.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on January 24 that he had extended the time available to discuss ways to save the nuclear deal with Iran under the dispute mechanism triggered by the three European Union trio, also referred to as E3.

“There is agreement that more time is needed due to the complexity of the issues involved. The timeline is therefore extended,” Borrell said in a statement.

Borrell said the joint commission that regulates the Iran nuclear deal will meet in February but did not give a date.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi announced on Sunday that Borrell plans to pay a visit to Tehran on Monday for talks with Iran’s senior officials, including Javad Zarif.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.

Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, had warned earlier that Iran will mull leaving the NPT if the Europeans failed to salvage the pact.

NA/PA