Europe should avoid ‘provocative, unconstructive’ attitude to nuclear deal revival: Iran envoy

Naziri Asl made the remarks at a session of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Wednesday.

He began his address by pointing to the United States and the European Union’s violations of their commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“If there was an international agency to monitor the expansion of unlawful sanctions, its report on violations of commitments by the United States and the E3 in light of Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) would be extensive,” he said.

Naziri Asl further emphasized Iran’s constructive actions in cooperation with the IAEA, focusing on the previous Board of Governors meeting in March, adding that unreasonable expectations from Iran are illogical.

He stressed that Iran’s nuclear activities, including uranium enrichment at various levels, are entirely peaceful and in line with the rights of the Iranian people based on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), and are subject to the supervision and verification of the agency’s safeguards.

Referring to the expressed willingness of the United States to return to the JCPOA and the subsequent negotiations, he stated, “Despite the painstaking negotiations that lasted over 18 months, mainly due to the lack of political will and determination by the United States, we were unable to achieve results in the talks.”

Noting that the US government has said on repeated occasions that the revival of JCPOA is no longer a priority for Washington, the Iranian envoy expressed concern that some other parties to the deal have turned a blind eye to this irresponsible viewpoint and are even moving in line with it.

It shows that miscalculations and minor political considerations are overriding the revival of an agreement that the international community spent years to achieve it, Naziri Asl added.

He also referred to repeated statements by certain governments calling on Iran to comply with its commitments, adding that not only do these countries deliberately confuse voluntary commitments with legal obligations, they also do their utmost to hide the very obvious fact that the JCPOA has other parties as well as some annexes that must be implemented by those parties without further delay.

The Iranian envoy also noted that it is a matter of serious concern that in spite of Iran’s widespread cooperation with the UN nuclear agency, the European Union, particularly Germany, Britain and France, continue to resort to outdated tactics and play a dirty game with political motivation to target Iran’s ongoing cooperation with the IAEA.