Russia: The JCPOA Will Not Last If the U.S. Exits

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, emphasized on Friday, January 19, that if the United States exits the JCPOA, the Iran nuclear agreement will not last. Speaking at the United Nations headquarters in New York with reporters, Lavrov stated, "If one of the parties to this agreement unilaterally withdraws, it will no longer be enforceable." Last week, Donald Trump warned that if the European Union and the U.S. Congress do not rectify the "catastrophic flaws" in the Iran nuclear deal, Washington will exit it. He stressed that this is the last time he will suspend part of the sanctions on Iran within the specified 120-day period. Now, the Russian Foreign Minister says that according to his sources, the U.S. is seeking to convince European governments to adopt a position similar to Washington's. Most of the UN and Western sanctions against Iran were lifted with the implementation of the Iran nuclear agreement, which was endorsed by a resolution in the Security Council. However, the Russian Foreign Minister states that the nuclear agreement will not survive as part of a renegotiation, especially considering the conditions set by the U.S. He added that it is clear that such terms are unacceptable to Iran, and he believes that Europeans are currently aware of the dangers of this issue. The conditions that Donald Trump has announced for amending the nuclear agreement include: "Immediate inspections of all facilities requested by international inspectors in Iran; ensuring that Iran does not approach nuclear weapons; making the limitations on Iran in the nuclear agreement permanent; and finally, that Iran's ballistic missile program and nuclear weapons are inseparable." The European Union had previously stated that it would "carefully review" the statements of the U.S. President. Donald Trump has called for a replacement agreement to prevent Iran's ballistic missile program. However, the EU's position so far has been that the nuclear agreement should be separated from other issues. According to Johannes Hahn, the EU Commissioner for Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, issues such as Iran's missile program, recent protests in Iran, and the role of the Islamic Republic in Middle Eastern tensions must be resolved, but their resolution should be outside the framework of the nuclear agreement. Nevertheless, on Thursday, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations noted that if you want the U.S. to take the nuclear agreement seriously, the EU and the international community must take Iran's behaviors seriously and prevent issues such as the Islamic Republic's missile program and its "support for terrorism."