Iran will not agree to renegotiate JCPOA: Senior MP

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic will by no means agree to holding fresh talks on a landmark nuclear deal it signed with the P5+1 group of countries in 2015.

“When a document is signed by all the negotiating sides after months of negotiations and the United Nations Security Council also adopts a resolution to endorse it, it will be meaningless to hold new talks on it,” Chairman of the Iranian Parliament’s Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Sunday.

He added that the United States must completely implement the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The Iranian lawmaker added that earlier comments by US President Donald Trump about possible ways to renegotiate key terms of the JCPOA were among instances of Washington’s violation of the deal, describing Trump’s comments as an illegal move.

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia – plus Germany signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the JCPOA into international law.

The US president has been a critic of the JCPOA signed under his predecessor, Barack Obama, calling it a “disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated,” and vowing to scarp or renegotiate it.

Addressing a sit-down with a small group of American journalists on July 19, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected any attempts to renegotiate the JCPOA.

“It would be extremely dangerous to even contemplate reopening these negotiations, because now we all go into any possible negotiations with even higher expectations,” Zarif said, adding, “It was complicated enough to reach this deal already, and it would be impossible to reach another deal.”