BRUSSELS, May 8. /TASS/. The Iran nuclear deal will stay in place, regardless of US President Donald Trump’s position, but there will be problems with its implementation, Russia’s Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Tuesday.
"Whatever the White House may say today, it will mean, I have all the grounds to think so, that there will be problems on a path of its implementation. But it in no way means it will be broken down. It is a multilateral document approved unanimously, including by the United States, at the United Nations Security Council in the corresponding resolution," he said. "So, I am convinced that the rest five nations (Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany - TASS) will stay committed to this deal, and I hope Iran will stay committed to it too."
However he admitted that expectations about the US president’s statement on Iran "are rather gloomy." At the same time, the Russian diplomat stressed that the other international mediators on the Iranian nuclear program "maintain daily contacts on that problem."
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), known as the deal on Iran’s nuclear program, was signed between Iran and six international mediators (the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, and France) on July 14, 2015. On January 16, 2016, the parties to the deal announced beginning of its implementation. Under the deal, Iran undertakes to curb its nuclear activities and place them under total control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in exchange of abandonment of the sanctions imposed previously by the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the United States over its nuclear program.
In January 2018, US President Donald Trump said his country would withdraw from the JCPOA if changes were not brought into it. In his words, he was "waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal." In later April, a US administration official said that his country, France, Germany and the United Kingdom had managed to reach progress at talks aiming to amend the Iran nuclear deal but no final decision had been taken yet. Trump is expected to announce his decision on the JCPOA on Tuesday.