TEHRAN — The chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee says Iran will return to the pre-JCPOA era if the UN sanctions are reimposed.

In an interview with Fars published on Saturday, Mojtaba Zonnour said Iran will comply with its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPO) as much as the other parties to the deal comply with it.

“If the sanctions are reimposed, we will stop all of our JCPOA-related cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency,” Zonnour said.

The remarks came after U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration announced that on Saturday (2000 EDT Sunday) all UN sanctions on Iran have to be restored and a conventional arms embargo on the country will no longer expire in mid-October. 

But 13 of the 15 UN Security Council members have said Washington’s move is void. Diplomats say few countries are likely to reimpose the measures, which were lifted under the JCPOA.

A return of UN sanctions, under the so-called snapback mechanism, would require Iran to suspend all nuclear enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and ban imports of anything that could contribute to those activities or to development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.

All other parties to the deal – including Iran, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany – have argued that the U.S. cannot trigger the snapback mechanism since it abandoned the nuclear pact in May 2018.

“The first step to initiate the snapback mechanism is that the initiator must be a member of the JCPOA,” Zonnour said.

“This is while the U.S. has exited the JCPOA and is not a member of the JCPOA anymore,” he added.

The top MP said if the United States bullies other countries into following its lead, “the Islamic Republic will naturally produce responses.”

MH/PA