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Speaker of parliament's upper house Matviyenko hopes US not to quit agreement on Iran

"If the US wants to quit this agreement, anyway it is a unilateral initiative, which the world would not support," Valentina Matviyenko said

ST. PETERSBURG, October 14. /TASS/. Speaker of the Russian parliament’s upper house (Federation Council) Valentina Matviyenko expressed hope the US would not quit the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program.

"If the US wants to quit this agreement, anyway it is a unilateral initiative, which the world would not support," she told reporters on Saturday. "I hope, there would not be a decision on ripping up the nuclear deal, as any steps to misbalance the agreement are very dangerous.".

She warned, if Iran drops the JCPOA obligations, "all the undertaken international deals on non-proliferation would be at risk."

She called the recent statement, made by the US President Donald Trump, "alarming."

"The deal on the Iranian nuclear program and JCPOA were tough to reach, the world recognized them a big victory of the international diplomacy," she said. "Iran today is under IAEA’s tough control regarding fulfilment of that agreement."

The recent inspection was in August, she continued. "IAEA confirmed Iran observes strictly the undertaken obligations."

"There are no reasons to doubt effectiveness of those agreements, of that document," the speaker said, stressing JCPOA is not a bilateral agreement, and thus it cannot be terminated unilaterally by the US. "No doubt, it will continue," she added with confidence.

Trump’s statement on JCPOA

On Friday, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s new strategy against Tehran. Thus, it says that the United States will seek to offset Iran’s destabilizing influence and will call on the international community to get consolidated to exert pressure on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (Iran's most powerful security and military organization). Apart from that, Washington will seek to amend the JCPOA.

The deal on Iran’s nuclear program was reached 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 the 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.