Iran’s anti-sanctions law strategic reaction to Trump’s measures: Envoy tells IAEA

Iran’s permanent representative to Vienna-based international organizations says a recent law passed by the Parliament to thwart the illegal US sanctions against the country was a strategic reaction to anti-Iran measures taken by the administration of former US president, Donald Trump.

Kazem Gharibabadi told IRNA on Sunday that Iran has informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and its member states, in a report, of various aspects of the law and reasons behind its ratification by the Iranian legislature.

He said, “The report has noted that ratification of this law was in fact a strategic reaction to measures taken by the Trump administration over past years” and also to the inaction shown by other parties to the JCPOA (the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in the face of US unilateral withdrawal from the deal and reimposition of sanctions on Tehran.

On December 1, Iranian lawmakers overwhelmingly voted in favor of the “Strategic Action Plan to Lift Sanctions and Safeguard Interests of Iranian People,” which tasked the administration with suspending more commitments under the JCPOA after former US president on May 8, 2018 pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

The law, among other things, required the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) to produce at least 120kg of 20-percent enriched uranium annually and start the installation, gas injection, enrichment and storage of nuclear materials up to an appropriate enrichment degree within a period of three months using at least 1,000 IR-2m centrifuges.

A month later, Tehran announced the beginning of the process to enrich uranium to 20 percent purity at its Fordow nuclear facility in a tit-for-tat move against the US withdrawal and the European countries’ failure to protect Iran’s interests.

Gharibabadi further said the report has emphasized that all the measures taken by Tehran to reciprocate Washington’s unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA are being carried out under the supervision and verification of the IAEA, adding that they are reversible in case of other parties’ fulfillment of their obligations and removal of all anti-Iran sanctions.

He noted that the US “unilateral and unlawful” pullout from the JCPOA, the re-imposition of sanctionsو which had been lifted as per the JCPOA, the imposition of new sanctions under different pretexts and exerting pressure on countries and private companies to pursue Trump’s so-called ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against Tehran are among topics mentioned in the report.

In the report, the diplomat said, Iran has also criticized the European Union and the three European signatories to the JCPOA – Britain, France and Germany – for failing to adopt appropriate measures to guarantee Tehran’s interests under the nuclear deal and to effectively counter and make up for the US sanctions despite the Islamic Republic’s fulfillment of its commitment for over one year after the US withdrawal. The IAEA, he added, has verified Iran's full compliance with the nuclear deal in 15 consecutive reports.

Gharibabadi mentioned the adoption of a policy based on excessive demands, lack of commitment to JCPAO obligations, acts of [nuclear] sabotage and the assassination [of Iranian nuclear scientists] and/or offering support for such policy by remaining silent in the face of its destructive results despite Iran’s compliance with the nuclear deal and its transparent cooperation with the IAEA were among other issues explained in the report.

SS