Dubai. September 18. INTERFAX - Tehran, after the lifting of restrictions on the Iranian missile program from October 18, has the right to cooperate with all interested countries, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, Nasser Kanaani, said on Monday.
In a statement dated September 14, the foreign ministers of the "European troika" (Great Britain, France and Germany) announced their intention not to take steps to lift the temporary restrictions contained in UN Security Council resolution 2231, which expire on October 18. We are talking about restrictions related to Iran's missile program.
The UN Security Council resolution approving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded in the summer of 2015 to resolve the nuclear program imposed a five-year arms trade embargo with Iran and eight-year restrictions on the Islamic Republic's missile program.
In a statement, the "European troika", which negotiated the restoration of the JCPOA, announced that it would maintain the restrictions after October 18 as a "direct response to Iran's consistent and serious non-compliance" with the JCPOA.
As a representative of the Iranian Foreign Ministry told reporters, "after October 18, the restrictions provided for by the JCPOA will be automatically lifted, and Iran will not attach importance to the restrictions announced by the EU."
"After this date, Iran, on the basis of international law, can cooperate and interact with any country that shows interest," Kanaani stressed.
In turn, the chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Iran, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, said on Monday that his country was among the leading countries in the world in the power of ballistic missiles, Iranian media reported.
The JCPOA was concluded in 2015 by the "six" international mediators (Great Britain, Germany, China, Russia, the USA, France) and Iran and provided for the lifting of sanctions from the latter in exchange for limiting Tehran's nuclear program. In May 2018, then US President Donald Trump withdrew from the JCPOA and reinstated unilateral anti-Iranian sanctions. In response, Tehran began to gradually reduce its obligations to limit its nuclear program under the agreement.
The current US President Joe Biden has declared his readiness to return to the nuclear deal under certain conditions.
Several rounds of indirect talks between Iran and the United States on the conditions for restoring the JCPOA were held in Vienna with the mediation of Great Britain, Germany, China, France, Russia and the EU. However, soon a pause was taken in the negotiations, which has dragged on until now.
The official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, urged "the European participants of the JCPOA to immediately reconsider their destructive course and ensure strict compliance with their international obligations in strict accordance with UN Security Council resolution 2231."
"Contrary to Western speculation, the resolution does not prohibit, but permits cooperation with Tehran in the missile sphere, subject to the approval of supplies to the UN Security Council," Zakharova said in a comment published late last week on the agency's website.
