MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. A delegation of Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom discussed in Iran retuning Fordow facility, Russia’s Ambassador to Iran Levan Dzhagaryan said in an interview with TASS on Sunday.
Moscow is satisfied with the level of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Tehran’s nuclear program, he said, adding Rosatom’s delegation, which presently is visiting the country, discusses "certain practical aspects of the project to reconfigure the Fordow reactor."
"We hope to see soon the results of these consultations," Dzhagaryan said.
The JCPOA, signed in Vienna in the summer of 2015, involves Iran, Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany. It stipulates that Tehran should produce no weapons-grade plutonium and reduce its stockpiles of enriched uranium in return for the removal of international sanctions. After Iran implemented its obligations, which was verified by IAEA inspections, then-US President Barack Obama lifted sanctions imposed on Tehran over its attempts to develop nuclear weapons. At the same time, other restrictions, including those concerning ballistic missiles, remained in place. On October 13, 2017, incumbent US President Donald Trump announced a new strategy towards Iran, stipulating that Washington would seek to make changes in the JCPOA in order to curb Iran’s "destabilizing influence." Trump refused to certify the agreement on January 13.
The deal should remain as it is
The US president recently said that Washington would withdraw from the JCPOA unless "the deal’s disastrous flaws" were fixed. Trump noted that 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."
According to the Russian ambassador, both Tehran and Moscow are concerned about the situation around JCPOA. "There are reasons to understand our European counterparts also worry about this, as they had applied much effort to reach the deal."
"I would like to stress once again - Iran observes fully its obligations under JCPOA," he said. "This deal is the result of long complicated international talks and it should remain as it was made in summer 2015. There can be no question of any changes (in JCPOA - TASS)".