Iraqi: Joint Commission Meeting on JCPOA to Be Held on Tuesday in Vienna

The head of the JCPOA Implementation Follow-up Headquarters in Iran announced that a joint meeting of Iranian and American experts regarding the "ISA" law extending U.S. sanctions will be held on Monday. He stated that the results of these negotiations will be presented to the Joint Commission of the JCPOA on Tuesday. According to the state news agency IRNA, Abbas Araqchi also mentioned that the Islamic Republic will "not tolerate" the violation of commitments by the other parties in the Vienna nuclear agreement "under various pretexts" and will respond appropriately to such behaviors. He announced that after the Iranian Foreign Minister's letter to the EU's foreign policy chief regarding the "ISA" law, the Joint Commission will convene. Araqchi stated that within the "mechanisms of the JCPOA," if a country has a complaint regarding a violation of the JCPOA, there must first be "bilateral consultations" between that country and the violating country, followed by a meeting of the "working committee related to the lifting of sanctions" at the expert level. He confirmed that the meeting of Iranian and American experts took place on Monday, and their negotiations' results will be presented to the Joint Commission on Tuesday. No reports have yet been published regarding the outcomes of the Iranian and American experts' meeting. Meanwhile, the Mehr news agency reported that the head of the Iranian delegation at the "Working Group on Implementing Sanctions Lifting" meeting on Monday is Ismail Baqaei, the Secretary of the JCPOA Implementation Follow-up Headquarters. Previously, Hamid Baidi-Nejad, the Director General of the Foreign Ministry, led the Iranian expert team in nuclear negotiations before being appointed as Iran's ambassador to the UK in September. The Joint Commission meeting of the JCPOA between representatives of Iran and the 1+5 group will be held on Tuesday at the "Palais Coburg" hotel in Vienna, Austria's capital. This meeting will be at the deputy level, with Abbas Araqchi, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, and Helga Schmid representing Federica Mogherini, the EU's High Representative, co-chairing the meeting. Following the extension of the "D'Amato" law in the U.S., Iranian officials say this action constitutes a "violation" of the JCPOA, and they will not remain silent on this issue and will respond "appropriately." The U.S. does not consider the approval of these sanctions a violation of the JCPOA. Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had instructed the Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Organization on December 15 to implement the measures outlined in the JCPOA to address the "violations" of this international agreement. Three days later, the Iranian Foreign Minister, in a letter to Federica Mogherini, requested the convening of the Joint Commission of the JCPOA to address the "extension of the Iran sanctions law" by the U.S. After the implementation of the nuclear agreement in January of the previous year, it was announced that a joint commission composed of Iran and the 1+5 countries, under the guidance and coordination of the EU's foreign policy chief, would continue to "monitor and supervise the full and effective implementation of the JCPOA." Since the implementation of the JCPOA, this joint commission has met several times, with major topics discussed including the sale of Iran's heavy water, issues faced by European banks in participating in Iran, and the presentation of "five or six serious cases" by Iran regarding the "violation of the spirit of the JCPOA" by the U.S.