The Guardian: Iran officially withdraws from 2015 nuclear deal

Iran has formally terminated the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the 2015 nuclear agreement signed with world powers in exchange for sanctions relief and limits on its nuclear program.

From now on “all of the provisions [of the 2015 deal], including the restrictions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the related mechanisms are considered terminated”, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement, The Guardian reports.

The JCPOA, signed by Iran, China, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, was originally intended to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. However, the deal effectively collapsed after the United States withdrew in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and reimposed sanctions.

After that 12-day war in June, Iran’s parliament passed a bill to refuse to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the UN’s nuclear inspectorate.

That led to signatories Britain, Germany and France triggering the so-called “snapback” process, leading to the reimposition of the UN sanctions. The snapback provision allows for the rapid and automatic reimposition of all UN sanctions that were lifted under the deal if Iran were to significantly violate its nuclear commitments

Those snapback sanctions in effect made a formality of “termination day”, which was set for 18 October, exactly 10 years after the adoption of UN security council resolution 2231.

Last month, when the snapback sanctions went into effect, the British, French and German foreign ministers said in a joint statement they would continue to seek “a new diplomatic solution to ensure Iran never gets a nuclear weapon”.

On October 13, Trump said that he wanted a peace deal with Iran, while Tehran has repeatedly said it remains open to diplomacy with the US, provided Washington offers guarantees against military action during any potential talks.

Iran’s top diplomat, Abbas Araghchi, said last week that Tehran did “not see any reason to negotiate” with European powers, given that they had triggered the snapback mechanism.

By Khagan Isayev