July 16, 2019. Global Times: As the initiator of the current Iranian nuclear tensions, the US should address the concern of the vast majority of the international community and give up the wrong practice of putting extreme pressure on Iran, China’s Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Geng Shuang, spokesperson for Chinese Foreign Ministry, made the remarks at a regular media briefing, one day after Federica Mogherini, EU’s foreign affairs and security policy chief, said at an EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels that they don’t view Iran’s breaches as significant non-compliance to the nuclear deal.
Mogherini said that they also don’t intend to invoke the nuclear deal dispute mechanism.
“For the time being, none of the parties to the agreement has signaled their intention to invoke this article,” Mogherini told a news conference, Reuters reported. “[It] means that none of them for the moment, for the time being with the current data we have had in particular from the IAEA, that the non-compliance is considered to be significant non-compliance.”
Geng said that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the nuclear deal, is “irreplaceable and effectively and fully implementing it is the only realistic and effective way to ease the current tensions.”
According to Geng, Iran’s compliance issue should be addressed under the framework of the joint commission of the JCPOA. It’s also necessary to ensure a balance of rights and obligations of the JCPOA.
On Sunday, the leaders of France, Germany and the UK issued a joint statement, saying that they are “concerned about the risk that JCPOA [nuclear deal] will collapse following sanctions imposed by the US and as a result of Iran’s decision to no longer respect key provisions of the agreement.”
The crisis first surfaced after US President Donald Trump decided to abandon the deal last year. Trump said the deal is to Iran’s advantage. He then re-imposed sanctions on Tehran to force the country to agree to stricter limits and curb its ballistic missile activities. Iran stopped implementing some of its commitments subject to the nuclear deal.
