Remaining Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) Nations To Continue Working With Iran Despite US Sanctions - Russian Envoy

Remaining Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Nations to Continue Working With Iran Despite US Sanctions - Russian Envoy

The individual countries that have remained committed to the Iran nuclear deal following the United States' withdrawal, namely Russia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, continue working to preserve trade and economic cooperation with Tehran amid recently reinstated US sanctions, Russias Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Wednesday

BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th August, 2018) The individual countries that have remained committed to the Iran nuclear deal following the United States' withdrawal, namely Russia, China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, continue working to preserve trade and economic cooperation with Tehran amid recently reinstated US sanctions, Russias Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Wednesday.

The first batch of US anti-Tehran sanctions, previously lifted under the Iran nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), took effect on Tuesday, targeting the countrys acquisition of Dollar bank notes, trade in gold and other metals, transactions related to the Iranian rial, and purchases of cars and commercial passenger aircraft. The second wave of sanctions, which will target the oil and gas industry in Iran and its energy sector, as well as transactions with the Central Bank of Iran, is slated for November.

"The remaining five countries continue their efforts to preserve trade and economic cooperation with Iran under the US sanctions," he told reporters.

The diplomat stressed that the JCPOA was still valid, despite the United States' withdrawal.

"Objectively, the interests of the European Union [the final party to the JCPOA] and Russia on this track are almost identical. We were co-authors of this fragile agreement on the Iran nuclear program, therefore it is in our interest to preserve it. At present, one can acknowledge that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action after the US withdrawal has not died," Chizhov stressed.

In May, President Donald Trump announced that his country would exit the 2015 JCPOA, which stipulates the gradual lifting of the anti-Iran sanctions in exchange for Tehran maintaining the peaceful nature of its nuclear program. The remaining parties to the agreement have denounced the US move and committed themselves to preserving the deal.