VP Urges Europe to Pressure US into Lifting Sanctions on Iran

Europe had better try to convince the US to remove its anti-Iran sanctions instead of holding meetings and mounting pressure on Iran to save the 2015 nuclear deal, Iranian First Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri said.

Speaking at a conference in Tehran on Tuesday, Jahangiri reminded the parties to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that the only way to salvage the agreement is to honor their commitments.

“Instead of holding meetings and putting pressure on Iran, the European countries had better pressure the US into lifting the cruel sanctions against the Iranian nation,” Jahangiri stated.

He also reminded the Europeans that after the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran waited for one year before reducing its commitments under the JCPOA.

“... if we are not to take advantage of the JCPOA, we will scale down our commitments,” the vice president added.

He made it clear that Iran could easily reverse the decision to reduce its JCPOA commitments, provided that the sanctions are lifted.

On July 7, Iran declared the second step in reduction of its JCPOA commitments by ramping up the level of uranium enrichment to over 3.67 percent.

Iran maintains that the new measures are not designed to harm the JCPOA, but to save the accord by creating a balance in the commitments.

Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, US, Britain, France, and Germany) on July 14, 2015, reached a conclusion over the text of the nuclear deal.

The accord took effect in January 2016 and was supposed to terminate all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran all at once, but its implementation was hampered by the US policies and its eventual withdrawal from the deal.

On May 8, 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the nuclear accord.

Following the US withdrawal, Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the deal.

However, the EU’s failure of ensure Iran’s economic interests forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments, including an unlimited rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.