TEHRAN, Dec 18_Russia’s top security official has defended Iran’s legal right to reap benefits from a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal, reminding the other signatories of their “unavoidable” responsibility to meet their end of the bargain.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation Nikolai Patrushev made the remarks in a meeting with Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani in Tehran on Wednesday.
Patrushev said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is a binding international agreement.
To protect the JCPOA, it is an “unavoidable necessity” for Iran to be able to exercise its legal rights and reap the benefits of the deal and for all parties to fully implement their side of the accord, the Russian official added.
The JCPOA was signed between Iran and six world states — namely the US, Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — in 2015. It was later ratified in the form of a UN Security Council resolution.
However, Washington’s exit in May 2018 and the subsequent re-imposition of sanctions left the future of the historic agreement in limbo.
In compliance with Articles 26 and 36 of the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic has, since May 2019, gone through four stages in scaling back parts of its commitments in retaliation for the US’s pullout and Europe’s failure to shield business transactions with Iran against the American bans.
Shamkhani, for his part, hailed Moscow’s stance against Washington’s illegal JCPOA-related measures as well as its support for Tehran’s counter-measures.
“If Europe continues the path of non-compliance with [its] obligations, we will have no choice but to take the next steps to make a balance in commitments,” he added.