Presidential Official: Iran Geared Up to Further Reduce JCPOA Commitments

Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a weekly cabinet session on Wednesday, Mahmoud Vaezi said the European parties to the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and the other countries are continually sending messages to Iran to prevent the fourth step of reduction in Iran’s JCPOA commitments.

Negotiations are underway to reach a common framework before a two-month deadline set by the Islamic Republic, he noted, adding that President Hassan Rouhani has set up a committee to handle the fourth step.

“We will definitely take the fourth step to reduce the JCPOA commitments in due time if we do not reach the desirable framework,” Vaezi stated.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump pulled his country out of the JCPOA.

Iran and the remaining parties launched talks to save the JCPOA after the US withdrawal, but the three EU parties to the deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have failed to ensure Iran’s economic interests.

The EU’s inaction forced Tehran to stop honoring certain commitments to the nuclear deal, including a rise in the stockpile of enriched uranium.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iranian president’s chief of staff touched on an agreement between the presidents of Turkey and Russia on halting Turkish military operations in northern Syria, saying, “We recognize Turkey’s security concerns at the border and believe that… Syria’s territorial integrity must be preserved, so that these (Turkish) attacks and measures would not result in disintegration of Syria.”

He also said Iran welcomes any initiative that prevents an outbreak of war in Syria, and will help sustain a ceasefire under the agreement between Turkey and Russia.

His comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on the parameters of a proposed Turkish “safe zone” in Syria, a development that could bring an end to Ankara’s military operation against Kurdish forces over the border.

On October 9, Turkish military forces and Ankara-backed militants launched a long-threatened cross-border invasion of northeast Syria in a declared attempt to push Kurdish militants from the People's Protection Units (YPG) away from border areas.

Ankara views the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in Turkey since 1984.  

Many countries, including Iran, and international organizations such as the UN and Arab League have criticized Turkey’s invasion of Syria, calling on Ankara to end the incursion into the Arab country.