Latest U.S. decision was in response to Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela (representation)
Tehran:
Tehran on Thursday rejected the impact of what it called Washington’s “desperate attempt” to end sanctions waivers for the countries that remain in the Iranian nuclear deal.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran has said that the United States has decided to “divert public opinion from its persistent defeats at the hands of Iran.”
“Ending the waivers for nuclear cooperation with Iran … actually has no impact on the continuation of Iran’s work” on what the Islamic Republic insists is a purely civilian nuclear energy program, spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi added in a statement on the agency’s website.
The US move, he said, was in response to Iranian fuel shipments to Venezuela – which is also under US sanctions – and “significant advances in the Iranian nuclear industry”.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the United States was responding to Iran’s “distrust” – its removal of certain nuclear engagements aimed at pressuring Washington to remove sanctions like the provides for the 2015 agreement.
“These escalation actions are unacceptable and I cannot justify renewing the exemption,” said Pompeo in a statement.
The Iranian ambassador to the United Nations said that with this decision, Pompeo was drawing the “last candle” on the nuclear deal after President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it in 2018.
“To claim that the United States is ALWAYS” participating “is not only absurd; it is WRONG,” tweeted envoy Majid Takht Ravanchi.
He was referring to Washington’s claim that he remains a participant in the agreement, although he has renounced it, and may push for an extension of the arms embargo against Iran which is scheduled to expire in October.
The other parties to the agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, are Great Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
In May 2019, Iran announced that it was suspending its nuclear commitments under the agreement, starting with removing limits on its stocks of heavy water and enriched uranium.
It was in retaliation for the US sanctions and what Iran deemed Europe’s inaction to provide the economic benefits of the JCPOA.
Washington has so far granted waivers to allow companies, mainly from Russia, to continue carrying out the deal’s nuclear work without risking legal ramifications in the US economy.
It will end the waivers that allowed the modification of the Arak heavy water reactor, which prevented it from using plutonium for military purposes, as well as the export of spent fuel and waste from the research reactor.
Kamalvandi said the lifting of the waivers would not affect Iran’s continued work on the Arak reactor and “other equipment” by Iranian experts.
(This story has not been edited by GalacticGaming staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated feed.)
