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Iran scales back on nuclear commitments

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in which he announced that the Islamic Republic will immediately cease its adherence to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which is the technical term of the 2015 nuclear agreement that was reached between Tehran and the P5+1, which included the United States under the Obama Administration, Russia, China, France, Britain plus Germany. According to the Iranian President, “Under the terms of JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) we agreed that we would keep enrichment to the level of 3.67. We will stop adhering to this and there will no longer be a set level for enrichment (of uranium). Secondly, in the agreement the Arak Heavy Water reactor was due to be rebuilt with the support of the JCPOA participants and this process is still far from reaching its final stages. After 60 days, we will make a decision on whether we press ahead with our own plans for Arak that we had already put in place before the JCPOA agreement was reached to complete the reconstruction of Arak.”

The Iranian President also took the opportunity to warn the leaders of the five remaining members of the nuclear deal, that if they use the Iranian decision as a pretext to formulate new U.N. Security Council resolutions against the Ayatollah regime, “they will be met with a very firm response.”

That said, Rouhani underscored that Tehran does not intend to leave the nuclear deal in its entirety – claiming that the scale-back is in line with the terms of the multilateral agreement. “This is the same JCPOA that states if the other parties are failing to meet their obligations, then we can also reduce our obligations in the deal. Today, we are announcing a reduction of our obligations under the JCPOA. We are not leaving the JCPOA,” Hassan Rouhani said.