SOCHI, February 7. /TASS/. The failure of the Iran nuclear deal is fraught with negative consequences for the entire global non-proliferation system, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a master class for the Leaders of Russia contest finalists on Wednesday.

"We will insist that all the parties remain committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for Iran’s nuclear program," he said. "Its failure is fraught with very negative and hard-to-predict consequences for the entire non-proliferation system and the entire world order," the Russian top diplomat added.

JCPOA issue

The JCPOA, signed in Vienna in the summer of 2015, involves Iran, and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - 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 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."