MOSCOW, July 8. /TASS/. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Kremlin was regretting the consequences arising from Iran cutting back on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program after the US unilateral withdrawal from the deal.
"Regretfully, we are now registering these consequences. The Russian diplomacy will continue working," he pledged. "We will also be expecting the results of the work of an IAEA commission, which will be convened in the coming days."
The Kremlin representative specifically underlined that the situation is concerning. "Russia is primarily intending to continue the dialogue and efforts on the diplomatic front," he added. "We remain backers of the JCPOA. I would like to remind you that it is the Russian side and President Putin warned about the negative consequences, which would inevitably arise after one of the parties to the JCPOA decided to cease fulfilling its obligations and quit the deal."
Earlier, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister and the key JCPOA negotiator Abbas Araghchi said that the Iranian authorities were taking the second step of cutting back on the JCPOA obligations and increasing the uranium enrichment level to above 3.67% since July 7. According to him, such steps would be taken every 60 days until the parties to the deal fulfil the reached agreements. Araghchi also pointed out that "the doors to diplomacy are still open, however, new initiatives are needed" to resolve the situation.
The problem of the Iranian nuclear dossier exacerbated dramatically after the United States unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA on May 8, 2018 and introduced American economic sanctions in the oil export sphere against Tehran. Exactly one year later, on May 8, 2019, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced that Tehran was suspending its part of the obligations on the nuclear deal and gives other parties to it six months to return to its implementation.
The JCPOA was signed between Iran, five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015. The deal limited Iran’s nuclear development in exchange for lifting the UN, US and EU sanctions. Iran pledged not to enrich uranium above the level of 3.67% for 15 years and maintain enriched uranium stockpiles at the level not exceeding 300 kg, as well as not to build new heavy-water reactors, not to accumulate heavy water and not to develop nuclear explosive devices.