Iran Will Quit NPT In Case Of EU Referral to Security Council - Zarif

By Staff, Agencies

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Iran will leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty if Europeans insist on their unjustifiable behavior or refer the nuclear issue to the UN Security Council.

Zarif added that Iran is following up the late decision by European states to trigger the Dispute Resolution Mechanism in the context of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], adding that Tehran officially started the discussion on the mechanism on May 8, 2018 when the US withdrew from the deal.

He further underlined that Iran sent three letters dated May 10, August 26 and November 2018 to the then EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, announcing in the latter that Iran had officially triggered and ended the dispute resolution mechanism and thus would begin reducing its commitments to the JCPOA.

However, Iran gave a seven-month opportunity to the European Union before it began reducing its commitments in May 8, 2019 which had operational effects two months later, Zarif underscored.

He also said that the country’s five steps in compliance reduction would have no similar follow-ups, but Europeans’ measure to refer the case to the United Nations Security Council may be followed by Tehran’s decision to leave NPT as stated in Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s May 2018 letter to other parties to the deal.

He stressed that all the steps are reversible if the European parties to the JCPOA restore their obligations under the deal.