Iran bill calls for pulling out of global nuclear bill

A group of Iranian parliamentarians has submitted to the Iranian legislature a bill to withdraw their country from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Anadolu Agency reported.

Amirabadi Farahani, a member of the parliament’s Presiding Board, said that the legislative body has acknowledged two bills, one of which is for exiting the NPT. The other bill would ban the production, possession, and use of nuclear weapons.

In May 2018, the United States imposed economic sanctions on Iran and withdrew from a nuclear deal that had been signed in 2015 by the Islamic Republic and the Western powers known as P5+1, in reference to the five permanent members of the United States Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States) plus Germany.

The deal stipulated that Iran limits its nuclear programs and give up key elements of it for at least 10 years, with the aim being to prevent the country from acquiring the ability to develop nuclear weapons. The economic sanctions would be lifted in return.

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But on 5 January, in the aftermath of the assassination of the Quds Force commander Qassem Suleimani by a US drone strike on Iraq, Iran announced the suspension of all of its commitments in the context of the nuclear deal framework.

On their part, the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany said they have activated the dispute resolution mechanism stipulated in the nuclear deal with Iran as a result of the latter’s failure to abide by the agreement.

The deal enables any of the parties to the nuclear deal to resort to the dispute resolution mechanism in the event of a party’s failure to live up to its commitments. If the dispute persists, the issue may be referred to the UN Security Council, which entails the possible imposition of economic sanctions.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif had stated that his country would withdraw from the NPT if his country’s file went to the Security Council.