LONDON, November 25. /TASS/. The United Kingdom, France and Germany (E3) are convinced that it is possible to create conditions for the observance of all provisions of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program and the United States’ return to the deal, according to an E3 statement to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) issued on Wednesday.
"We as E3 will return to Vienna for negotiations in good faith, to resume work based on where we left off discussions in June. We are convinced that it is possible to reach and implement an understanding on the measures providing for Iran return to full compliance with its JCPOA commitments and the United States return to the deal. We are convinced it is in the best interest of all parties to do so swiftly. Iran should take the opportunity to do this deal now," the document says. "Restoring full implementation of the JCPOA is in the collective security interests of all, including of Iran. "
According to the statement, Iran "has also considerably reduced crucial cooperation with the IAEA and seriously undermined the Agency’s ability to monitor the Iranian programme." E3 calls on Tehran "to urgently restore IAEA access" to the facility at Karaj, which manufactures components to centrifuges necessary for uranium enrichment and to hand over to the IAEA devices and data storage items used for monitoring. The E3 nations expressed serious concern over the fact that Tehran has made no corresponding steps so far.
E3 also called on IAEA chief Rafael Grossi "to keep the Board informed regarding progress on monitoring and verification in Iran in all its aspects. It is important that the Board continues to monitor the situation closely."
On November 23, Grossi held talks with Head of Atomic Energy Organization of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Vice-President Mohammad Eslami and met with the Iranian foreign minister. He said that his talks with Iran were constructive and professional but yielded no results. Tehran and the IAEA should reach an agreement to resume the agency’s inspections in that country, he stressed.
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action
The JCPOA, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, was signed between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (Russia, the United Kingdom, China, the United States and France) and Germany in 2015. Under the deal, Iran undertook 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.
The future of the deal was called in question after the United States’ unilateral pullout in May 2018 and Washington’s unilateral oil export sanctions against Teheran. Iran argued that all other participants, Europeans in the first place, were ignoring some of their own obligations in the economic sphere, thus making the deal in its current shape senseless. This said, it began to gradually scale down its commitments under the deal.
Meanwhile, US’ incumbent President Joe Biden has repeatedly signaled his readiness to return the US to the deal.
The Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has had six offline meetings in Vienna since April to find ways to restore the nuclear deal in its original form. The sides discuss prospects for the United States’ possible return to the deal, steps needed to ensure full compliance with the deal’s terms by Iran, and issues of lifting the anti-Iranian sanctions. The next round of talks is scheduled for November 29.