Iran De Facto Remains At Stage 4 Of Nuclear Deal Scale-Back - Russian Diplomat

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 27th January, 2020) Iran has not de facto further reduced its commitments under the nuclear deal despite announcing Phase Five in early January, Mikhail Ulyanov, the permanent representative of Russia to international organizations in Vienna, said Monday.

Iran announced on January 5 it was taking the fifth step in reducing its obligations by giving up on the limit to the number of centrifuges as specified under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

"On January 5 #Iran announced decisions within 5-th phase of reductions of its commitments under #JCPOA. However so far the #IAEA did not report any changes in the field. That means that, as of today, Tehran de-facto remains within phase 4 announced in early November," Ulyanov said on Twitter.

Iran has been gradually reducing its commitments since the United States unilaterally quit the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions. The remaining parties to the deal reaffirmed their commitment to it. However, after Iran announced Phase Five in January this year, France, Germany and the United Kingdom said they were triggering the dispute resolution mechanism for the deal.