Iran Has "Plan B" In Case Negotiations On JCPOA Fail - Foreign Minister

Sumaira FH Published February 22, 2023 | 06:59 PM

Iran has a "Plan B" and other options in case negotiations on the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iranian nuclear deal, fail due to the US position, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 22nd February, 2023) Iran has a "Plan B" and other options in case negotiations on the restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iranian nuclear deal, fail due to the US position, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Wednesday.

Earlier in the day, the top Iranian diplomat arrived with an official in Baghdad. During a joint press conference with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, Amirabdollahian said that the United States were sending contradictory signals to Tehran regarding the nuclear deal.

"If the American side opts for a different path, we are also ready to implement Plan B and step in a different path, and all options are available to us and are on the table," Amirabdollahian said, as quoted by the Mehr news agency.

In 2015, Iran signed a nuclear deal, known officially as the JCPOA, with the P5+1 group, which includes the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union.

It required Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and drastically reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal was made.

In 2018, then-President of the US Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions on Iran, to which the latter responded by gradually abandoning its own commitments under the deal. Several packages of US sanctions against Iran have since been imposed.

In December 2021, talks on the resumption of the JCPOA were resumed. However, progress on the deal was frozen in September 2022 due to a series of mass protests in Iran, for which Tehran blames the US and other Western countries. In addition, Washington said in December 2022 that it had abandoned the idea of reviving the deal after Tehran had allegedly begun supplying Russia with drones for its special operation in Ukraine.