Senior UN Official Calls for Preservation and Adherence to the JCPOA

With less than three weeks until the deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump regarding the modification of the Iran nuclear agreement, which could lead to the United States' withdrawal from the deal, a senior UN official in the field of arms control urged all parties to the JCPOA to adhere to the agreement and not withdraw from it. In remarks at a UN conference on nuclear non-proliferation, Izumi Nakamitsu, the senior UN official on arms control, stated, "We hope all parties will fully commit to implementing [the nuclear agreement] and protecting it in the long term." These remarks came just hours before a meeting between the Presidents of the United States and France, where Emmanuel Macron is expected to defend the nuclear agreement and encourage Trump to remain in the JCPOA. Trump, who has long been a serious critic of the JCPOA, believes that the nuclear agreement with Iran has significant flaws and has stated that if the issues with the JCPOA are not resolved by May 12, when he must comment on the suspension of sanctions against Iran, he will no longer be willing to suspend sanctions and may even withdraw from the agreement. Since then, other parties to the nuclear agreement, including the three European allies of the United States—Britain, France, and Germany—have emphasized their commitment to the JCPOA, although the European parties to the JCPOA have stated that they share U.S. concerns regarding Iran's missile program and its destabilizing presence in the region, believing that these concerns should be addressed within a different framework. Among the three European countries involved in the JCPOA, sanctions related to Iran's missile program and the Islamic Republic's presence in Syria have been proposed to the European Union, which is still under consultation due to the lack of consensus among all EU members on this issue. Warning about the danger of nuclear weapon aspirations, at the UN conference on nuclear non-proliferation, Nakamitsu also condemned the proliferation of discourse claiming the necessity of access to nuclear weapons and warned that the desire to use such weapons is spreading. The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), presented nearly half a century ago at the height of the so-called Cold War, aims to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons while also requiring nuclear-armed countries to commit to reducing their nuclear arsenals. However, on Monday, Nakamitsu emphasized that the world is currently facing the same challenges that led to the establishment of this treaty during the Cold War, as the senior UN official stated, "The threat of deliberate or accidental use of nuclear weapons is increasing. Currently, five of the nine nuclear-armed countries in the world—Britain, China, Russia, France, and the United States—are members of the NPT. However, as noted by Agence France-Presse, these countries, despite their commitments under this treaty, are also modernizing their nuclear arsenals, and the development of nuclear weapons is a central part of their defense strategies. The other four nuclear-armed countries—India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea—have not yet agreed to join the NPT, although North Korea, whose nuclear and missile tests became particularly controversial last year, recently announced that it would halt all such tests. Iran, which has been a member of the NPT since the 1970s, has recently threatened through its foreign minister that withdrawal from this treaty could be one of Iran's options in response to a potential U.S. withdrawal from the JCPOA. Although the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, which Iranian officials have always referred to as a peaceful program, has sparked the idea of pursuing similar programs in other countries in the Middle East, this has fueled concerns about nuclear competition in the region. Trump's three main conditions for modifying the Iran nuclear agreement include lifting the time limits of the JCPOA, ensuring the permanent non-access of Iran to nuclear weapons, and granting full access to inspectors to all Iranian facilities, and Trump also wants Iran's missile program to be addressed within the framework of the JCPOA.