VIENNA, November 6. /TASS/. The participants of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program - the "Five" international intermediaries (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) and Iran - may focus at the next session on the implementation of the economic provisions of the nuclear deal amid the new US’ sanctions, Russian Permanent Representative to International Organizations in Vienna Mikhail Ulyanov told TASS.
"The plans to carry out a second wave of US sanctions were long known, and no one was surprised with the recent events. The commission will rather focus on the ways to provide the maximum execution of the economic provisions of the JCPOA amid the extension of American sanctions," Ulyanov noted.
Protective measures
The Russian diplomat noted that the remaining participants of the Joint Commission pay attention at their sessions to protective measures to minimize the damage from the US sanctions for the JCPOA. "In the Joint Commission we’ve always discussed protective measures aimed at minimizing the negative consequences of the American sanctions. There is a permanent working group on sanctions operating within the Joint Commission, which carries out more thorough discussions with participation of experts from financial, economic and foreign ministries," the permanent representative said.
The intention to preserve the deal
"This work continues and will continue. There is a political intention to preserve this deal, and for this purpose it is necessary to provide the maximum compensation of negative consequences that the decision [on sanctions] made by the Americans entail," he added.
The Iran nuclear problem sharply aggravated following the US’ unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA this past May. Iran and the "Five" international intermediaries (China, France, Russia, the UK and Germany) remain participants to the agreement and are determined to further implement the JCPOA. In each report the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) regularly stressed that Iran observes its obligations under the deal and that its activity is under the strictest control and the hardest nuclear checks, so the agency called on Tehran to continue to implement its obligations.
The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) regularly convened in Vienna, involving Iran’s political directors and the "Six" to discuss all the issues related to the execution of the JCPOA. On May 25, 2018, the session format changed and it was carried out as a reduced meeting, for the first time since the start of the implementation of the Iran nuclear deal in January 2016, as the US refused to continue to be a participant to the deal and is no longer present at the meetings. In light of Washington’s withdrawal from the deal, the Joint Commission was officially transformed into Iran and "Five" international intermediaries.
The US sanctions
On May 8, US President Donald Trump declared Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA and promised not just to return the former sanctions but introduce new ones as well, and the US Department of State reported in this regard Washington’s decision to diminish Iran’s revenues from oil exports. The first part of the US sanctions was relaunched in August - these restrictive measures covered Iran’s car building industry and the trading of gold and other metals. The other sanctions, including against the Iranian oil industry, came into effect on November 5. The US Department of the Treasury declared on Monday that sanctions were introduced against more than 700 Iranian people, legal entities, ships and aircraft. The organizations on the sanctions list include Iran Air, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran and the Central Bank of Iran.