Tass Reports Russia Committed to IRAN JCPOA as Vienna Meeting Ends



“Remaining participants are committed to the Iran nuclear deal, although the US sanctions are undermining it,” Russia’s Permanent Representative to the International Organizations in Vienna, Mikhail Ulyanov said on Sunday after a session of the JCPOA.

The Sunday session in Vienna, “made it possible to discuss at length the situation around the implementation of this agreement [JCPOA] with a focus on its nuclear and economic components. It is obvious that the US sanctions are undermining ‘the nuclear deal’. However, all participants are firmly committed to it,” Ulyanov said in a tweet.

The meeting in Vienna completed after two hours of discussion.

The previous meeting of the JCPOA political directors was held in Vienna on 28 June. The session agreed on a ministerial session in the coming months. However, as Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stressed, such a meeting should be duly prepared.

File photo from 21 May, 2015 - Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov File photo from 21 May, 2015 – Vladimir Putin and Sergey Lavrov – Photo credit: kremlin.ru

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed by Iran with the UN Security Council permanent members (Russia, the UK, China, America, France) plus Germany in 2015.

JCPOA restricted Tehran’s nuclear development in exchange for lifting the UN sanctions and the unilateral restrictions imposed by the US and the EU.

On 8 May 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA.

Exactly a year later, President of Iran Hassan Rouhani announced that Iran was suspending a part of its nuclear deal obligations and gave other parties to the deal two months to fulfill their obligations.


On 8 July, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran had surpassed the 3.67% uranium enrichment limit envisioned by the nuclear deal.


Lavrov and Pompeo not likely to meet at ASEAN

In other news from Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov  said Sunday, “It is highly improbable that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will meet with US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo on the sidelines of an ASEAN ministerial meeting in Bangkok”.

“Chances are slim, since the two top diplomats’ schedules are not coordinated and there is too little time ahead of the event,” he said.

“During his visit to Bangkok on July 30-31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is expected to have talks with his Thai counterpart, Don Pramudwinai, and other top diplomats from ASEAN nations,” reports TASS.