Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said during a regular press briefing on Monday that the US was making “futile” efforts if it was seeking to hinder the implementation of a nuclear deal between Iran and six other countries through contacts with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The IAEA monitors the technical aspects of the deal — officially titled the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — and regularly reports Iranian compliance. It has consistently confirmed Iran’s compliance with its end of the bargain in several reports so far.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has been skeptical of the deal, however, and while it has twice certified Iranian commitment in notifications to the US Congress, it has reportedly been seeking ways to potentially avoid future certification.
The US has also said that it is conducting a review of the deal to see whether continued sanctions relief — a US commitment under the agreement — is in the US’s national interest.
A US official said on August 9 that UN Ambassador Nikki Haley would be traveling to Vienna later this month to discuss Iran’s nuclear activities with IAEA officials as part of the review.
Qassemi, the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, was asked about that trip during the briefing.
“The contacts of the US government or representatives with the IAEA are their own business. If they are making efforts to cause problems for the JCPOA, I think that is a futile and pointless effort, since the Agency will at the end of the day follow its responsibilities with precision, and future reports will [continue to] confirm this (Iranian compliance), as well,” Qassemi said.
Iran reached the deal with the US, the United Kingdom, France, China, Germany, and Russia in July 2015. Under the deal, Iran applied certain limits to its nuclear program in return for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions on the country by the UN, the US, and the European Union.
Given the fact that the JCPOA is multilateral and that the other parties to the agreement continue to support it, Qassemi said, “it is believed that attempts by America’s representatives in making contacts with the Agency cannot be very effective.”
Without elaborating, he said problems could however be caused in certain areas.
In the face of the US administration’s hostile posture toward the JCPOA, Iran has taken up the task of safeguarding the deal. On Sunday night, Qassemi’s boss, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, said the number-one priority of his ministry would be to preserve the deal.
Qassemi echoed those remarks in his Monday briefing, saying a range of activities would have to be undertaken to sustain the JCPOA.
Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says his top priority is to ensure that a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six other countries will stand.
Speaking in a televised interview on Sunday night, Foreign Minister Zarif said the ministry under his watch would work first and foremost to keep the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in place.
“Priority number one of the diplomatic apparatus will be to sustain the JCPOA and to prevent America’s deal-breaching,” he said. “We must not allow America to execute or violate the deal at Iran’s cost.”
He said the JCPOA had been built on distrust and envisaged the necessary rules to deal with non-performance by parties.
Earlier in the day, Zarif had received a favorable vote of confidence at the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) to work as foreign minister in President Hassan Rouhani’s second cabinet. During a final debate at the Parliament, President Rouhani, who was in attendance to defend his cabinet picks, stressed the preservation of the JCPOA.
The JCPOA, a major foreign policy achievement of President Rouhani’s first term, was finalized between the Islamic Republic on the one side and the United States, the UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany on the other in July 2015.
Zarif was Iran’s chief negotiator in the multilateral talks that culminated in the deal.
When it started being implemented some six months after conclusion, the deal terminated all nuclear-related sanctions against Iran in return for certain measures by the Islamic Republic to limit its nuclear program.
But the new US administration has been unhappy with the deal, which was negotiated under the administration of former president Barack Obama. The new White House occupant has attempted to undo every one of Obama’s major policy achievements.