Iran: Europeans must act fast or we will move away from nuclear deal

Iran has not yet made its final decision on the fourth step to reducing its nuclear obligations, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday.

Zarif’s remarks came on the sidelines of the international conference on “Unilateralism and International Law” in Tehran.

Any decision to reduce the country’s obligations under the deal will be made by the Supreme Council for National Security, he said, adding that if European parties are unable to meet their obligations by early November, Iran will have to take further measures to move away from the terms of the deal.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said in his weekly press conference in Tehran on Monday that “Iran is ready to take the fourth step if the Europeans fail to honour their commitments to the international deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and we hope it would not be taken and we would see the commitment of the remaining parties of the nuclear agreement, especially European countries.”

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“We hope that we would not arrive at the fourth step and that Europeans would meet their obligations; if not, Iran will go ahead with taking the fourth step,” Fars news quoted Mousavi as saying.

In early September, Iran announced that it would suspend all of its obligations regarding nuclear research and development as part of the third phase of reducing its nuclear commitments in response to US and European positions on its nuclear program.

In 2015, Tehran, along with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (Russia, the United States, France, China, and Britain) and Germany, signed an agreement on Iran’s nuclear program, which would see Tehran reign in its nuclear program in return for the lifting of decades-old sanctions.

On 8 May 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the agreement and imposed “unprecedented” sanctions on Tehran.

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