The Islamic Republic of Iran lifted all restrictions of the JCPOA
Iran has officially announced the fifth and final step in reducing its commitments under the JCPOA. This step was taken two days after the killing of Qassem Soleimani. The lifting of all JCPOA restrictions by Iran could lead to the reimposition of pre-JCPOA sanctions.
The Iranian government on Sunday, January 5th It officially announced its withdrawal from all JCPOA commitments by issuing a statement. The government information website report states: “In the fifth step of reducing its commitments, the Islamic Republic of Iran is removing the last key item of its operational restrictions in the JCPOA, namely the “limitation on the number of centrifuges.” Thus, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s nuclear program no longer faces any restrictions in the operational area (including enrichment capacity, enrichment percentage, amount of enriched material, and research and development), and from now on, Iran’s nuclear program will proceed solely based on its technical needs.”
Iranian officials have announced the final step of lifting the restrictions of the JCPOA at a time when the eyes of the world are focused on Iran and watching the funeral ceremony of Qassem Soleimani.
Iran's lifting of JCPOA restrictions has now raised concerns that the country's tensions with the United States and other Western countries will increase and Iran's isolation will increase.
The Iranian government statement stated that "Iran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency will continue as before" and "if sanctions are lifted and Iran is deprived of the benefits of the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to return to its JCPOA commitments."
Abbas Mousavi, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said on Sunday, January 5, before issuing the government's statement, that decisions had previously been made regarding the Islamic Republic's fifth step to reduce its nuclear commitments, but the current situation and circumstances could overshadow these decisions, given the events that have occurred.
From the first step to the last step
Iran announced for the first time on the anniversary of the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal that it would suspend the implementation of some of its commitments in the JCPOA.
In the first step of reducing its nuclear commitments, the Islamic Republic stopped selling Iran’s enriched uranium and heavy water. In the second step, Iran announced that it would exceed the 3.67 percent uranium enrichment limit set in the JCPOA. In the third step, the Islamic Republic abandoned the restrictions set in the JCPOA and began research and development on various types of centrifuges and new centrifuges. The fourth step was “gassing the centrifuges” at the Fordow nuclear facility.
Possibility of activating the trigger mechanism
The remaining European countries in the JCPOA (Britain, France and Germany) have repeatedly warned about Iran's moves to reduce its nuclear commitments. The three European countries have repeatedly called on Iran to stop these actions and have called Iran's threat to increase uranium enrichment levels "particularly worrying."
Now, the lifting of all restrictions in the JCPOA and the elimination of Iran's commitments to the JCPOA could lead to the activation of the "trigger mechanism."
The remaining European countries in the JCPOA had warned Iran about the activation of the trigger mechanism even before the JCPOA restrictions were completely lifted.
According to the mechanism foreseen in Article 37 of the JCPOA, known as the "automatic return mechanism" or "trigger mechanism", if Iran violates the nuclear agreement, the international sanctions that existed before will be reimposed by referring the case to the United Nations.
Source: DW
