U.S. Not Part of JCPOA to Comment on Compliance

Iran’s Permanent Mission to UN

UNITED NATIONS (Kayhan Intl.) -- Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations said Wednesday the U.S. is no longer a participant to the 2015 nuclear deal and thus in no position to comment on Tehran’s compliance with its obligations under the accord.
Alireza Miryousefi, the mission’s spokesman, made the remarks in a post on his Twitter account, after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Iran was months away from being able to produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon.
The top U.S. diplomat also alleged that it could be only "a matter of weeks” if the Islamic Republic continued to lift restraints in the nuclear agreement, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"Iran is still a participant member of #JCPOA, but the U.S. is not. It’s not up to the U.S. to assess whether Iran has made good on its obligations,” Miryousefi tweeted.
He further stressed that other issues apart from Iran’s nuclear program were not part of the JCPOA, and as a result, "our defensive missile program is not up for negotiation.”
On Sunday, Blinken told NBC News that the U.S. was willing to return to compliance with the JCPOA if Iran did so and then worked with Washington’s allies and partners on a "longer and stronger” agreement encompassing other issues.
The JCPOA was signed in 2015 between Iran and six world states — namely the U.S., Germany, France, Britain, Russia and China — and ratified in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.
However, former president Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the U.S. out of the JCPOA in May 2018, reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the deal, and targeted the nation with the so-called maximum pressure campaign.