BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 20
By Elnur Baghishov - Trend:
Iran’s withdrawal from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (Non-Proliferation Treaty or NPT) isn’t expected, Spokesman for the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Hossein Naqavi Hosseini said, Trend reports referring to Etemadonline website.
Iran doesn’t need to withdraw from NPT, because Iran doesn’t want to carry out any nuclear activity without the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hosseini noted.
The spokesman added that Iran may voluntarily abolish the implementation of the additional protocol if the country continues reducing its commitments in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“If all signatories to JCPOA withdraw from this agreement, Iran shouldn’t withdraw, but it can reduce its commitments,” Hosseini said.
In January 2016, JCPOA was launched between Iran and the P5+1 group (US, Russia, China, UK, France and Germany) in connection with Iran's nuclear program. In May 2018, the US announced its withdrawal from the deal and imposed sanctions against Iran in November of the same year. In order to preserve the agreements reached as part of the JCPOA, the European signatories of the deal stated in January 2019 that a financial mechanism for maintaining trade with Iran called INSTEX was formed.
On May 8, 2019, Iran announced that it had ceased fulfilling its commitments regarding the sale of over 300 kilograms of uranium, as stated in the deal, basing its decision on the other signatories having not fulfilled their obligations. On July 7, Iran announced that it will not be fulfilling its commitments regarding the enrichment of uranium at 3.67 percent and the reconstruction of the Arak Heavy Water Reactor Facility as stated in the deal.
On Sept. 5, Iran announced that it will enrich uranium using next-generation centrifuges and will not mix it with the enriched uranium residues as part of the third step of reducing commitments in JCPOA, and stated that a further step will be taken in two months, should the other signatories not fulfill their commitments.
On Nov. 6, Iran put the 2,800 kg cylinder including 2,000 kg uranium hexafluoride (UF6) in Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant as part of the fourth step of reducing commitments to JCPOA.
