Representatives of Iran and the world powers working to save the nuclear deal with Tehran agreed on Tuesday in Vienna to do everything possible to preserve the landmark 2015 agreement in their first meeting since the United States announced a bid to restore United Nations sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Helga Schmid, the European Union representative who chaired the meeting, said afterwards on Twitter that the “participants are united in resolve to preserve the #IranDeal and find a way to ensure full implementation of the agreement despite current challenges.”
Iranian representative Abbas Araghchi did not comment after the day of talks, but ahead of the meeting said the US move would “definitely be an important discussion” topic with delegates from France, Germany, Britain, Russia and China.
President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action unilaterally in 2018, saying that it was a bad deal and needed to be renegotiated.
The deal promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, but with the reinstatement of American sanctions, the other nations have been struggling to provide Iran the assistance it seeks.
Complicating the matter, the US announced recently it was triggering a 30-day process to restore virtually all UN sanctions on Iran, invoking a “snapback” mechanism that is part of the JCPOA agreement. Washington’s argument is that as an original participant it still has that right, even though it left the deal.
Other signatories to the JCPOA agreement have rejected that argument, setting the stage for a potential crisis in the Security Council later this month, with the U.S. claiming to have re-imposed sanctions and most of the rest of the world saying the Trump administration’s action is illegal and ignoring it.
Chinese representative Fu Cong told reporters after the meeting that the member countries all agreed that the U.S. no longer has “the legal ground or legal standing to trigger snapback” and that in China’s view Washington was using it to “try to sabotage or even kill the JCPOA.”