TEHRAN (Iran News) – China Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian condemned the US decision to end sanctions waivers in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers.

Zhao said at a daily press briefing on Friday that the US move hampers the international non-proliferation progress and shared efforts to preserve the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and it demonstrates its consistent pattern of unilateral and hegemonic practice, Xinhua reported.

“The US has chosen to stick to its maximum pressure campaign on Iran. It has not only unilaterally withdrawn from the JCPOA in violation of the UNSCR, but also ratcheted up efforts to thwart other parties’ implementation of the deal,” Zhao said.

He said that arrangements in this deal regarding nuclear programs reflect a balance of Iran’s non-proliferation obligations and rights to peaceful uses of nuclear energy, and embodies the purpose and principle of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.

“Complying with and acting on these arrangements serves all parties’ common interests and is a shared responsibility,” Zhao said.

Noting that the Arak reactor conversion is an important part of the JCPOA and a joint project of parties to the agreement, Zhao said that China is ready to work with other parties to continue upholding the deal and safeguarding its own legitimate rights and interests.

Hawkish US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that Washington had ended the last remaining sanctions waivers in the JCPOA.

“Today, I am ending the sanctions waiver for JCPOA-related projects in Iran, effective in 60 days,” Pompeo wrote on Twitter.

Iran’s Ambassador to the United Nations Majid Takht Ravanchi said on Thursday that the US has destroyed the last means of retention of the JCPOA by ending waivers for sanctions prohibiting nuclear cooperation with Tehran.

In May 2018, US President Donald Trump took an illegal and unilateral decision to end Washington’s participation in the nuclear deal and re-impose the sanctions that the agreement had lifted, in defiance of the fact that the accord has been endorsed by the UN Security Council in the form of Resolution 2231.