EU's Borrell vows full work to preserve Iran nuclear deal

The high representative of the European Union for foreign affairs and security policy has once again stressed the importance of preserving a 2015 nuclear deal signed between Iran and major world powers, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, pledging to work with other relevant parties to that effect. 

"I discussed the #JCPOA on its 5th anniversary during the #med2020 dialogue organised by @ispionline. We need to preserve the #Irandeal and I will continue to work in my role as coordinator of the Joint Commission," Josep Borrell said in a post on his official Twitter page on Saturday. 

In his tweet, he provided a link of the full video of his virtual address to the annual Mediterranean Dialogues 2020 conference on July 14, concurrent with the fifth anniversary of the conclusion of the JCPOA.  

"I am frankly convinced that we need to preserve this deal for two reasons. First, there is no other effective alternative around the corner. The idea that we can build another deal and we call it "Trump deal", it is not possible, you know," Borrell said to the participants at the time. 

In his remarks, he pointed to the beginning of the discussions in 2003 which led to the conclusion of the JCPOA and said, "It took 12 years to break the differences and to cut a deal," and added that "it was a big success for effective multilateralism and it has been a success because the JCPOA has delivered on its promises."

He highlighted that International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had in "15 consecutive reports" confirmed that "Iran has met all their nuclear obligations until June 2019."

Borrell emphasized that no administration, even in the United States, would be able to put on the table a peaceful alternative to the JCPOA.

The historic deal was reached between Iran and a group of countries then known as the P5+1 — which included the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany — on July 14, 2015. However, in May 2018, President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the JCPOA and re-imposed the sanctions that had been lifted under the deal.

Verified by the IAEA, Iran remained fully compliant with the JCPOA for an entire year, waiting for the co-signatories to honor their commitments and offset the impacts of the US withdrawal.

But, as the European parties continued to renege on their obligations, the Islamic Republic moved in May 2019 to suspend some of its JCPOA commitments under articles of the deal covering Tehran’s legal rights in case of non-compliance by the other side.