UNITED NATIONS, January 19. /TASS/. Moscow will make substantial efforts to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters at a news conference on Friday.
"The deal is not dead," he said. "As far as I understand, US President [Donald] Trump said that by the next review, which is to take place in a couple of months, he would take a final decision: either he is met halfway and the deal is rewritten or he withdraws from it."
"We will be making considerable efforts to make sure that the deal does not collapse," the minister said. "It cannot be preserved in a modified form, especially in what concerns US demands. That will be unacceptable for Iran."
According to Lavrov, "Europeans are likewise aware of this danger."
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.
Last week, 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.".