Zarif: If US violates JCPOA, Iran has right to withdraw

Zarif, currently in New York to attend the United Nations High Ranking Political Assembly made the remarks in an interview with the National Interest, an American bimonthly international affairs magazine published by the Center for the National Interest.

“If it comes to a major violation, or what in the terms of the nuclear deal is called significant nonperformance, then Iran has other options available, including withdrawing from the deal,” Zarif told Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest.

“Iran has taken a route that has been prescribed within the nuclear deal, taken it to the joint commission, and we will discuss that in the joint commission to make sure that the shortcomings by the United States are remedied.

“This has been the subject of an ongoing debate within the joint commission, not only during the Trump administration but also during the previous Obama administration, when it took the United States, for instance, several months to clear the purchase of airplanes.

“It took the US longer to clear the purchase of Airbus airplanes than it took for the purchase of Boeing airplanes. But nevertheless for Airbus it took about nine months and for Boeing it took about four months. Which in our view was too long, so we took the issue to the joint commission. And some parts of it were remedied, some parts of it were not, and this is the avenue that is open to us now,” he said.

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