Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will announce on Wednesday his country’s response to the withdrawal of US President Donald Trump from the nuclear deal, Iranian state news agencies reported, quoting a source familiar with the matter as saying that Tehran had informed the signatory parties of a partial or total suspension of some of its commitments to the nuclear agreement.
“The partial and total reduction of some of Iran’s commitments and the resumption of part of the nuclear activities that were suspended under the nuclear agreement are the first Iranian step to respond to the US withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and the European countries’ failure to fulfill their commitments,” an Iranian news agency said, quoting an official of the committee overseeing the implementation of the JCPOA.
The United States announced last Friday several measures that target Iran's nuclear program, and suspended sanctions exemptions related to the exchange of enriched uranium with natural uranium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif last week referred to "multiple options" to be discussed at the highest levels in Tehran to respond to the White House’s moves. Among these options is withdrawal from the NPT.
However, the official IRNA news agency quoted an Iranian official as saying on Monday that his country has left the door open to diplomacy, noting that Iran's steps were “another opportunity for diplomacy, and to rectify the unilateral moves adopted by the parties to the agreement.”
The Iranian official criticized the positions of the European countries since Trump’s withdrawal from the agreement, and said: “They made promises they failed to implement.”
The Iranian announcement will be preceded by a meeting between the parties to the JCPOA, which is supposed to be held in Vienna on Tuesday at the level of experts, to discuss the latest status of the nuclear agreement and the implementation of the special European mechanism launched by Britain, France and Germany in order to circumvent the US sanctions.
