FM: Iran Not Pulling Out of Nuclear Deal

Iran will dial back voluntary commitments

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has issued a statement on Iranian state media denying claims that Iran was about to withdraw from the P5+1 nuclear deal. Zarif insisted that Iran will remain fully compliant with the deal as signed.

Iran is going to announce some specific changes on Wednesday, however, they will not in any way change the terms of the nuclear deal itself. Instead, Iran will be backing out of some commitments that they were voluntarily complying with above and beyond the deal.

Exactly specifics on the changes aren’t clear. Iran is to justify the change based on the US having withdrawn from the P5+1 deal, and Europe failing to come through which pledged sanctions relief to keep trade flowing after the US pullout.

That’s likely to be used by the US to continue to push the remaining nations to scrap the nuclear deal, though they had been doing so as it is. There have not been reactions from the remaining states, likely because the specifics are not yet made public.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.