IRAN – Iran has announced that it is no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme, as a landmark 10-year deal between Tehran and world powers has expired. However, Tehran reiterated its “commitment to diplomacy.”
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 Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Saturday, the day the pact expired. “Iran firmly expresses its commitment to diplomacy,” it added.
The deal’s “Termination Day” was set for exactly 10 years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 2231. Officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the agreement between Iran and China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States led to the lifting of international sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear activities.
However, Washington unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018 during President Donald Trump’s first term in office and reinstated sanctions. Tehran subsequently began to expand its nuclear programme.
Efforts to revive the agreement have so far failed. In August, the UK, Germany, and France triggered the so-called “snapback” process, leading to the reimposition of UN sanctions. “Termination Day is relatively meaningless due to the snapback,” Arms Control Association expert Kelsey Davenport told AFP.
Ali Vaez, the International Crisis Group’s Iran project director, told AFP that while the nuclear deal had been “lifeless” for years, the snapback had “officially buried” the agreement, with “its sorry fate continuing to cast a shadow over the future.”
Western powers and Israel have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — a claim Tehran denies. Neither US intelligence nor the International Atomic Energy Agency has found any evidence this year that Iran is pursuing atomic weapons. (Aljazeera)
