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Trump administration is not to withdraw from JCPOA: US official

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New York, April 28, IRNA -- The Executive Director of the Arms Control Association Daryl G. Kimball said that the Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's letter to US Congress regarding Iran's commitment to JCPOA indicates that President Donald Trump's campaign criticism against Iran nuclear deal has come to an end.

Kimball made the remarks in an exclusive interview with IRNA.

Commenting on US president's recent claim that Iran is not living up to the spirit of the nuclear agreement and also on statement made by the US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson who accused Iran of destabilizing the world, Kimball said, "The critical rhetoric from the White House and the Secretary of State toward Iran expresses the United States continuing frustrations with Iran's support for the Syrian President Bashar al- Assad government in Syria, Iran's support for Houthi (Ansarallah) fighting in Yemen, and for Iran's continued development of ballistic missiles."

He went on to say that those rhetoric "will continue to be issues that create friction in the US-Iranian relationship no matter how well the JCPOA works for the two countries.

"These critical statements were timed to try to distract attention from the State Department's formal certification to Congress that Iran is complying with the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is, contrary to Trump's campaign criticism, working as designed to verifiably limit Iran's potential to amass nuclear bomb material and providing relief from nuclear-related sanctions relief. With President Trump and his administration, one must pay attention to his words, but it is more important that we pay attention to what he actually does."

Asked why President Trump is not happy ‎with Iran's compliance with the Nuclear Agreement?, Kimball said that US politicians "never like to admit they may have made incorrect or exaggerated claims during their election campaigns and they often discover that it is easy to make promises and to level strong criticisms as a candidate, but it is harder to make serious and complex decisions once you take office. It is not clear what President Trump means when he says Iran is violating the spirit of the JCPOA. What is more important than whether Trump expresses happiness about the JCPOA is the fact that his administration now recognizes that Iran is meeting the letter of the agreement and that United States continues to meet its obligations."

Commenting on a question that after years of Trump railing against the JCPOA, what it means that Trump administration ‎certifies that Iran is complying with the ‎terms of the nuclear agreement he said "I think it means that the United States, under a Trump administration, will not unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA so long as Iran continues to adhere to its commitments and it means that the Trump administration now recognizes that the JCPOA is doing what it was supposed to do and it also understands that it is a multilateral agreement and our partners believe the JCPOA is important for their security too."

As regards the announcement that the US administration intends to conduct a 90-day ‎review of whether lifting ‎sanctions against Iran was in the United States' national security interests‏ he noted "every new presidential administration conducts a review of existing policy on major issues and so this is an ordinary process involving an extraordinary presidential administration. There will be some arguments amongst certain key advisors and ministers about future US policy toward Iran as a whole, including whether and how to seek additional sanctions on issues that do not related directly to the JCPOA, but I would be surprised if the administrations review will lead Trump to try to back out of the JCPOA."

He stressed on EU‎, ‎China and Russian reaction if the US fails to comply with the nuclear agreement by ‏re-imposing ‏nuclear-related sanctions saying "I am quite certain that if Iran continues to comply with the JCPOA, the EU, China, and Russia would not support efforts by the United States to unilaterally withdraw from the JCPOA and re-impose the sanctions that were lifted as a result of the agreement."

"However, if Iran does not fully meet the JCPOA requirements, or if it fails to make progress toward resolving the IAEA questions about past nuclear activities with possible military dimensions in a timely manner, then we will likely see multilateral support for re-imposing a wide range of punitive sanctions and a cut-off of foreign investment inside Iran."

Regarding signing the first-ever project for nuclear safety cooperation ‎within the framework of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action between Iran and the European Commission he said "there has been important progress through the JCPOA on nuclear safety cooperation that provides an important foundation for future nuclear energy cooperation in the future. If Iran hopes to become more engaged with other countries in civil nuclear cooperation projects, Iran will need to continue to improve its nuclear safety and security standards.

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