Tabnak – Despite showing a serious determination to continue engaging in dialogue with the remaining parties of the JCPOA to save the nuclear deal, Iran has made it clear that in won’t hesitate to further revise its commitments in case of Europe’s failure to live up to their own. This established position is being reiterated by high-ranking Iranian officials.
In this vein, Iranian President’s Chief of Staff Mahmoud Vaezi said if no progress is seen in the upcoming talks with the European parties to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Tehran will certainly take the third step in reducing nuclear commitments.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet session in Tehran on Wednesday, Vaezi pointed to recent visits to France by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and said the president, the administration and the foreign minister are trying to use all means so that the anti-Iran sanctions are lifted.
“What we have been pursuing (in talks) with France in the past few weeks, especially past few days, is to restore Iran’s rights (mentioned) in the JCPOA and remove the cruel sanctions imposed by the US,” he added.
“If no progress is seen in the upcoming negotiations, taking the third step to reduce JCPOA commitments by the admiration will be certain,” Vaezi stated.
Meanwhile, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi says the Islamic Republic is dynamically advancing its civilian nuclear program, stating that it has recently launched a plant that can manufacture dozens of advanced centrifuges on a daily basis.
On a visit to an under-construction national ion therapy center in the city of Karaj on Tuesday, Salehi said his agency has lately inaugurated a modern hall, which has the capability to produce 60 state-of-the-art centrifuges per day.
He further noted that Iran has already installed advanced IR-6 centrifuges regardless of certain states’ protest, and is currently testing a newer generation of centrifuges dubbed IR-8.
The Iranian nuclear chief hoped that the country’s ion therapy center, with an estimated construction cost of 200 million euros, would be completed and fully come on stream within the next five years.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had also said it before that Iran will take the "third step" in reducing its commitments under a 2015 multilateral nuclear deal unless the other signatories take action to protect the agreement.
The third step will be taken on September 6, Zarif said in an interview with the German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung on Monday. Zarif further said if Iran comes to an agreement with Europe and the European side begins to implement it, we will not take this third step, without elaborating.
Tehran has rowed back on its nuclear commitments twice in compliance with articles 26 and 36 of the 2015 deal.
Iran says its reciprocal measures will be reversible as soon as Europe finds practical ways to shield the Iranian economy from unilateral US sanctions which were imposed last year when President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal.
