US must accept responsibility for violating JCPOA: Iran MP

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the United States must accept responsibility for lack of commitment to its obligations under last year’s nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.

“We hold the US responsible for all violations [of the nuclear agreement]. The US must accept responsibility for reneging on its promises on the international level,” Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi told reporters in Beirut on Monday after a meeting with Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil.

He added that the US’ lack of commitment has been proven to Iran and all countries in the world more than ever.

The Iranian lawmaker stated that the Islamic Republic does not hold other European countries, which signed the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with Iran, responsible for such failure to honor the P5+1’s commitments.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei also said on Monday that Iran’s experience in striking a nuclear agreement with the P5+1 group of countries, including the United States, was a clear example of the enemies’ untrustworthiness.

“Today, even the diplomatic officials and those who were present in the [nuclear] negotiations reiterate the fact that the US is breaching its promises, and while speaking softly and sweetly [to Iran], is busy obstructing and damaging Iran’s economic relations with other countries,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

On January 16, Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany started implementing the JCPOA that they had clinched on July 14, 2015.

Under the agreement, all nuclear-related sanctions imposed on Iran by the European Union, the Security Council and the US would be lifted. Iran has, in return, put some limitations on its nuclear activities.