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The full restoration of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on the Iranian nuclear program can be achieved as early as next week, said Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna.
In 2015, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Russia, the United States, France and Iran concluded the JCPOA, which implied the lifting of sanctions in exchange for limiting Iran’s nuclear program. In May 2018, the United States under Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and restored sanctions against Tehran. In response, Iran announced a phased reduction of its obligations under the agreement, abandoning restrictions on nuclear research, centrifuges and the level of uranium enrichment.
In a comment to TASS, Ulyanov noted that this would be possible “with a favorable development of events,” that is, if all the states participating in the negotiations agree with the version of the text that was distributed by representatives of the European Union on August 8.
According to him, if any of the parties has amendments and objections, it will be difficult to name specific dates for the return to full restoration of the JCPOA.
Earlier, Politico reported that the EU considers it necessary to reduce pressure on Iran in order to save the JCPOA, in particular, to reduce sanctions pressure on members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC, elite units of the Iranian Armed Forces). It is reported that this will not cancel the sanctions completely, but will make them less stringent.