JCPOA participants must preserve deal, avoid fruitless disputes: Russian diplomat

Russia's permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna has warned participants to the landmark Iran nuclear deal against engaging in “fruitless and potentially damaging disputes,” urging them to do their best to preserve the agreement.

According to Press TV, Mikhail Ulyanov made the remarks in a tweet on Monday in clear reference to efforts made by the three European signatories to the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to trigger the deal’s dispute resolution mechanism (DRM).

“#E3 tries to launch Dispute Resolution Mechanism. Not a good idea,” the Russian diplomat said, advising all parties to the JCPOA “to think together how to preserve the nuclear deal, which is in a very bad shape,” instead of engaging in “fruitless and potentially damaging disputes of this kind."

It was in mid-January that Germany, Britain and France said they planned to trigger the dispute resolution mechanism, which could restore UN Security Council sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

Reuters cited unnamed European diplomats as saying that the trio would notify the European Union that they were triggering the dispute resolution mechanism whose subsequent mechanism can ultimately lead to a “snapback,” which refers to the re-imposition of anti-Iran sanctions in place under previous UN resolutions.

In early July, the EU foreign policy chief said he had received a letter from Iran that demanded triggering the JCPOA's dispute resolution mechanism over the failure of the three European signatories to the agreement to honor their commitments.

Josep Borrell added that the letter written by Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined Iran's concerns regarding implementation issues on the part of France, Germany and Britain to the Joint Commission of the deal for resolution through the dispute process set out in the agreement's Paragraph 36.

ME