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December 14th, 2020 
Awake Goy 
TEHRAN – Jalil Rahimi Jahanabadai, a member of the Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, has ruled out any possibility of Iran agreeing to a new deal on its nuclear program.
“Iran’s position on the JCPOA is quite clear. There is a consensus in the establishment in its entirety on the nuclear deal that Iran demands that all JCPOA parties should return to the deal and implement it unconditionally,” the lawmaker said, according to the Parliament’s news agency ICANA.
Rahimi Jahanabadi also referred to the upcoming meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission, which is scheduled to be held on Wednesday, saying that during the meeting the two issues should be discussed.
“It is expected that Mr. Araghchi, as Iran’s representative, underlines two issues in the JCPOA Joint Commission meeting. First of all, he should reiterate that the JCPOA is the best deal. Second, Iran will not accept a new deal and negotiations,” the lawmaker said, adding that Iran should tell the 4+1 that it will return to its past activities if the Westerners fail to implement their commitments.
4+1 refers to France, Britain, Russia and China as four permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany. First it was referred to as 5+1, before Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the multilateral agreement.
On Saturday, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, the deputy foreign minister of Iran for political affairs, announced in a statement that the Joint Commission will hold a meeting at the level of deputy ministers and political directors.
The meeting will be held via videoconference. Araghchi said he will represent Iran in the meeting.
Earlier on November 30, the European Union External Action Service said in a statement that the meeting will be held in Vienna.
“A meeting of the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will take place in Vienna on 16 December. The Joint Commission will be chaired on behalf of EU High Representative Josep Borrell by the Secretary General of the European External Action Service Helga Maria Schmid and will be attended by the representatives of E3+2 countries (China, France, Germany, Russia, United Kingdom) and Iran,” the EU statement said.
According to the statement, the meeting will discuss ways to preserve the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
“Participants will discuss ongoing work to preserve the JCPOA and how to ensure the full and effective implementation of the agreement by all sides, including in preparation of exchanges at Ministerial Level,” the statement said.
According to the lawmaker, while the United States and Europe failed to uphold their obligations under the JCPOA, Iran was the only party that complied with its commitments. “In these circumstances, Iran took measures in the area of [uranium] enrichment because we believe that implementing the deal one-sidedly is wrong,” Rahimi Jahanabadi remarked.
The lawmaker also pointed to a recent law that requires the Iranian government to substantially increase nuclear activities in case other parties to the nuclear deal – officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) – failed to live up to their commitments.
“In the Parliament’s law it was mentioned that if the Westerners implement their JCPOA commitments and the Parliament’s National Security Committee certifies their compliance, then Iran will have no reason not to return to its JCPOA commitments,” Rahimi Jahanabadi pointed out.
The Iranian Parliament has recently passed a law that compels the government of Hassan Rouhani to substantially step up the country’s nuclear activities such as installing new, advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges and increasing uranium enrichment level to 20% if the other parties to the JCPOA failed to honor their commitments under the nuclear deal.
The law in question also requires the government to suspend the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) two months after the ratification of it if the parties to the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers failed to uphold their obligations under the JCPOA.
The law, officially called “Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions and Protect the Nation’s Rights,” is part of a broader strategy that aims to lift the United States sanctions on Iran and was put forward by the lawmakers in early November. It aims to force the United States into lifting sanctions on Iran by doubling down on nuclear activities.
SM/PA
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