Reacting to a recent move by the European Union to designate the IRGC as a “terrorist” entity, Hossein Amirabdollahian told reporters on Sunday, “Parliament’s Sunday measure that binds the government to designate the armies of the European countries as terrorist is a countermeasure.”

Referring to his conversations with EU Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell, Amirabdollahian said that the resolution is not binding and it’s just an expression of the feelings of a part of the European Parliament representatives.

Answering a question about whether withdrawal from the NPT would be one of Iran’s countermeasures,  Amirabdollahian said, “A small number of European political leaders, including the German Foreign Minister, have no experience in the field of diplomacy.”

Therefore, if they do not move in the direction of rationality and do not correct their positions, any measure is possible, he noted.

Earlier in a tweet Foreign Minister had warned the European Union of “reciprocal” measures after the European Parliament voted to add the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the EU’s terror list.

“The parliament (of Iran) is working to place elements of European countries’ armies on the terrorist list,” Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Twitter.

“The European Parliament shot itself in the foot,” Iran’s top diplomat said, adding that the response would be “reciprocal.”

Amirabdollahian’s tweet came after the European Parliament on Wednesday adopted an amendment that was added to an annual foreign policy report and called on the EU and its member states to include the IRGC in their terror list.

The parliament also passed another resolution on Thursday, calling for more sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities and putting the IRGC on the EU terrorist list over alleged human rights violations during the recent riots.

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The diplomatic mission, based in Brussels, capital of the European Union, made the remarks after Stoltenberg addressed Iran’s nuclear agreement and cooperation with the IAEA following a meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in Brussels.

“The NATO Secretary-General has reportedly ‘restressed Allies’ continued calls on Iran to uphold and fully implement all its obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and its safeguard agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” the Iranian mission said in a press release posted on its Twitter account.

It added that utterance of such remarks by the NATO chief would require the “moral high ground,” emphasizing that standing next to a man whose respective regime is neither a member of the NPT, nor any other international disarmament instrument of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), does not help Stoltenberg in terms of the credibility of what he states.

“Such remarks are either misguided or a grossly irresponsible spinning of facts, not to mention highly irrelevant,” the mission added, according to Press TV.

It reiterated Iran’s full compliance with the NPT and its complete implementation of Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) and the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC).

According to the press release, making such statements while standing next to the representative of a regime that “flouts international humanitarian law and violates the fundamental human rights of the people on the one hand, and has made a mockery of non-proliferation and disarmament mechanisms on the other hand, is only an indescribably sad irony.”

The Iranian mission concluded by calling on the NATO secretary general to “practice what he preaches specifically as regards this ‘ally’ and invite it to accede to the NPT,” while refraining from such misguided calls on Iran.

In the meeting with the Israeli foreign minister, the NATO secretary general restressed Allies’ continued calls on Iran to uphold and fully implement all its obligations under the NPT and the IAEA Safeguard Agreement, and refrain from all activities he claims are inconsistent with United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran is among the first countries to have signed the NPT. The country has also put its nuclear program under surveillance of the UN nuclear watchdog.

This is while Israel, the sole nuke-armed entity in the region, is estimated to have 200 to 400 nuclear warheads in its arsenal. The regime, however, refuses to either accept or deny having the weapons.

It has also refused to sign the NPT amid staunch endeavor by the United States and other Western states on international levels in favor of its non-commitment to the accord.

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“We will not look for nuclear weapons, but for the peaceful nuclear technologies that are our right,” he stressed.

“We are a member of the NPT, we have a contract with the agency as a safeguard and we carry out this safeguard and we have done so far,” Rouhani noted.

Stating that Iran does not want to have covert nuclear activity, the President said, “This is a decisive decision of Iran, whether Europe, the United States or the United Nations wants it or not. Our opinion is the same as the opinion of the Leader, which was announced as a fatwa.”

“When Trump left the JCPOA under the pressure of Israel regime and Saudi Arabia, we went to the United Nations at the end of September 2018, and on the first day of the General Assembly, after Trump’s speech, he texted me eight times and wanted to meet with me. I rejected,” he added.

Iranian President highlighted, “Europe should know that if we wanted to accept the issue of missiles and the region for discussion, that Trump had returned to the JCPOA from the beginning, so nothing will be added to the JCPOA.”

“We will withdraw from the Additional Protocol on Feb. 23 and what will be implemented will be based on safeguards, if it is implemented, there will be no significant issue,” Rouhani noted.

Stating that Iran will not expel any inspectors from the country, he said, “If the Director-General of the Atomic Energy Agency wants to come to Tehran and negotiate, we will accept. We do not want our nuclear program to be uninspected. If someone says we are expelling the inspectors, it means we are looking for a nuclear weapon. The Additional Protocol is a step beyond safeguards.”

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“This measure means an end to inspections beyond the Safeguards Agreement, but does not mean an end to all inspections. In fact, Iran is a member of the Safeguards Agreement and the NPT, but the implementation of the Additional Protocol will be halted,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said at a weekly press conference on Monday.

Khatibzadeh emphasized that Iran will nonetheless continue to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and report its new nuclear undertakings to the IAEA beforehand, as has always been the case.

He reiterated Tehran’s position that all of its measures are “easily reversible” provided that the other parties to the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPAO), return to fulfilling their abandoned commitments.

The JCPOA was unilaterally ditched by former US President Donald Trump in May 2018, in pursuit of what he called the “maximum pressure” policy against the Islamic Republic through unilateral sanctions. Iran has denounced the policy as an act of “economic terrorism”.

Khatibzadeh’s announcement comes more than two months after the Iranian Parliament passed a law to further accelerate the development of the country’s nuclear program.

The law, among other things, tasked the Iranian administration to stop allowing inspections beyond the Safeguards Agreement, including the voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol, if the other parties to the JCPOA failed to deliver on their commitments, normalize Iran’s banking relations, and remove obstacles to Iran’s oil export.

“According to this law, the inspections beyond the Safeguards Agreement will be halted, which we had voluntarily accepted within the framework of the Additional Protocol,” Khatibzadeh reiterated.

Asked to offer his take on the new US administration of Joe Biden’s Iran policy almost a month into his presidency, the spokesman said the Biden administration, unfortunately, treads in the footsteps of the Trump administration.

“What is happening today is not different from what was happening before January 20 … The same maximum pressure and crime, committed through the cruel sanctions against the Iranian people, continues today,” he said.

“This should actually bring a stain of disgrace to those who based their election campaign on distancing themselves from the bullying policies of the Trump administration,” Khatibzadeh said, referring to Biden, who prior to the November presidential election promised to rejoin the deal but has so far reneged on his promise.

Elsewhere in his presser, Khatibzadeh said the Islamic Republic’s stance on the use of nuclear weapons has not changed.

Iran underlines the peaceful nature of its nuclear activities and this stance has not changed, he said.

“The fatwa (religious decree) issued by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution on the prohibition of the use of weapons of mass destruction and nuclear weapons remains in place,” he added.

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Gharibabadi made the remarks in an online session on the Quarterly meeting of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Politics

The full text of Gharibabadi’s speech is as follows:

Madam Chairperson, Director-General, Excellencies, Ladies, and Gentlemen,

The Director General’s new report on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) illustrates the Agency’s ability to verify Iran’s commitments under the Deal and its utmost level of cooperation with the Agency. The Reports on this agenda item during the past five years have an identical paragraph which, regardless of the differences among the JCPOA participants on the level of implementation of the reciprocal commitments, is a good testament of the level of cooperation between Iran and the Agency.

The DG’s reports confirm that “Since 16 January 2016 (JCPOA Implementation Day), the Agency has verified and monitored Iran’s implementation of its nuclear-related commitments in accordance with the modalities set out in the JCPOA…”. It means that the Agency was even able to verify and monitor the steps taken by Iran in accordance with paragraphs 26 and 36 of the Deal. The reports even confirm that the Agency has not observed any change in the level of cooperation by Iran and despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Agency has continued to maintain its smooth verification and monitoring activities in Iran.

However, the Director General’s reports should be seen in their proper contexts; The JCPOA is a concrete highly elaborated Deal composed of balanced commitments made by its participants and like any other deals, it is supposed to benefit its participants. In fact, with the persistent United States irresponsible conduct, through adopting malign policies and imposing unlawful unilateral sanctions, the Deal has lost its balance of commitments, leading to the loss of the perceived benefits for Iran.

Therefore, while Iran is entitled to take remedial measures, the United States shall bear full responsibility for the consequences of its wrongful acts in clear contradiction with the Charter of the United Nations and the provisions of the Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015).

Madam Chair,

The JCPOA created a clear conducive context within which multilateralism was gaining more weight. In the past five years, the Board of Governors has witnessed many statements elaborating on the values and advantages of the JCPOA for the non-proliferation regime, but one shouldn’t ignore the fact that the Deal includes other essential categories of commitments, namely lifting of the sanctions and its effects.

As it is envisaged in the nuclear Deal “the JCPOA addresses the E3/EU+3’s concerns, including through comprehensive measures providing for transparency and verification. The JCPOA will produce the comprehensive lifting of all UN Security Council sanctions as well as multilateral and national sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program, including steps on access in areas of trade, technology, finance, and energy”.

Although the US Administration didn’t abide by its obligations completely, however, the situation was aggravated when the US Administration announced its unilateral withdrawal from the JCPOA on 8 May 2018. That very announcement and the subsequent coercive measures taken by the US Administration and lack of full and effective implementation of the commitments by EU/E3 members enshrined in the JCPOA to remedy the situation have brought about serious challenges to the Deal.

While the Deal was effectively and fully implemented by Iran and managed to create exemplary cooperation between Iran and the Agency, it was not implemented on the sanctions lifting side, especially during the past two and a half years. Unfortunately, the EU/E3 didn’t fulfill their sanctions-related commitments, and commitments related to the civil nuclear cooperation with Iran in this period, either. Hence, calling on Iran to fully implement its commitments while knowing the fact that Iran’s legitimate benefits from the Deal have not been realized, is neither reasonable nor a practical approach.

Madam Chair,

There is no way to justify the illegal US withdrawal and the imposition of sanctions as well as its subsequent acts and the other party’s inaction to remedy the situation; therefore, overstating the levels of which Iran has gone beyond the JCPOA limits, aggrandizing Iran’s R & D activities, and expressing concerns in this regard, can only be considered as endeavors to shoulder off the responsibilities of non-implementation of their commitments during past two and half years.

If some are concerned with the current level of activities, this has nothing to do with Iran and its exclusively peaceful nuclear program, so they are strongly recommended to implement their commitments under the Deal and the UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) to bring this derailed train to its proper track. On the other hand, I would like to draw the attention of these countries to the inhuman and destructive impacts of the US brutal sanctions on the Iranian people.

It should be regrettably noted that sanctions even during the COVID-19 pandemic have not been eased. It should also be acknowledged that the maximum pressure policy is proven to be doomed to fail. Considering the imposition of unlawful sanctions by the US as well as adopting an inactive position by the others, one couldn’t expect Iran to stand idle as if nothing was happened, and do nothing in relation to its commitments under the JCPOA.

It is also important to be noted that cooperation is obviously not Iran’s only option. Iran still has various options to establish a necessary balance to the Deal. I would also like to reiterate the already pronounced position of the Islamic Republic of Iran that whenever the lost balance between the rights and commitments of the JCPOA participants as stipulated by the Deal is restored through lifting sanctions and implementing commitments in this field, Iran is ready to reverse its remedial actions.

The JCPOA can only be saved through joint efforts and actions to ensure that the rights and obligations therein are fully materialized.

Madam Chair,

We welcome the fact that as a result of constructive engagement between Iran and the Agency, providing complimentary access is no longer an issue between Iran and the Agency. In the same spirit, we believe that on the issue of the results of the Agency’s visit to a location in Iran in early 2019, the report itself testifies the extent of cooperation between Iran and the Agency.

The Islamic Republic of Iran has been engaging with the Agency constantly in the past months. During January 2020, pursuant to the information provided by Iran related to the possible origin of the detected natural uranium particles dated 5 and 31 December 2019, the Agency took environmental samples at two declared nuclear facilities in Iran.

Afterward, in September 2020, the Agency, after eight months of taking samples, informed Iran of its preliminary assessment on the responses provided by Iran and shared with us a totally new finding for clarification. Accordingly, on 21 October 2020, Iran replied to the Agency’s questions. Iran also informed the Agency that in relation to the isotopically altered particles “the evidence of such contamination is under investigation”. Additionally, on 5 November 2020, Iran provided the Agency with more clarification related to the matter.

As it seems to be normal to have the analysis of the samples by the Laboratories with delays due to the situation, even for almost eight months, which we also quite understand, it also should not be seen abnormal for Iran to be in need of reasonable time to investigate on the issues raised by the Agency in September this year, only two and a half months ago.

It should be stressed that in accordance with the provisions of the JCPOA, Iran is provisionally and voluntarily implementing the Additional Protocol; therefore, providing the Agency with the requested access was done in good-will, and this should be seen as a foundation to resolve the issue, meaning a beginning for an end. Thus, expressing concerns or setting artificial deadlines without due consideration of the context within which we are in, is counter-productive and will damage the existing good-will.

It is noteworthy that despite the different understanding of technical matters between the two sides, interactions are still ongoing with a view to finalize the resolution of the matter, hence any hasty comments and conclusions should be avoided.

Madam Chair,

The US delegation was quoted that Iran should be exposed to a robust and the same high standards for verification as others. What kind of standards they are referring to?! American ones, as a result of which the international norms and regulations were ruined!

The Agency including the late DG Amano was of the opinion that the JCPOA is an exemplary model for the verification regime and he hoped to implement it in other Members of the Agency.

The Secretariat has also confirmed on many occasions, including in various interviews, technical briefings, etc. that a robust verification system is in place in Iran. However, if it is believed that any Member has higher standards for the verification measures, and if it is agreed by the BoG and the Secretariat, Iran is ready to consider it as an example! Absolutely, as a result of which, the level of cooperation and interaction between Iran and the IAEA would be dramatically reduced which we welcome.

The US cannot be seen as honest in its claims about having non-proliferation concerns, when it has thousands of nuclear warheads, proliferated such weapons and the related know-how, used it against a non-nuclear-weapon State, and threatens the others with the possible use of them. Indeed, such a country is not even entitled to talk about nonproliferation concerns.

On the same line, the Israeli regime is the only one in the Middle East which is not a member of any of the Weapons of Mass-Destruction instruments and developed various types of such weapons.

How much the US is concerned about this threatening situation? If non-members are rewarded and being a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty is a disadvantage, it would send a diametrically different signal to its Members. Likewise, how much the US is concerned about the standards of verification carried out by the KSA and the UAE, who officially have still SQPs? If they are honest in their claims about the implementation of high verification standards by the Members of the Agency, how do they think about the implementation of such verification standards in other parts of the Middle East? How many times do they have expressed concerns in this regard?

However, the Islamic Republic of Iran does not deem any value on unfounded and demagogic noises and claims by the US and Israeli regime which their main purpose is to put pressure on and divert the Agency and the Member States to achieve their political interests.

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The plan has so far been signed by 19 MPs, ISNA reported on Saturday.

The Iranian government is duty-bound to immediately quit the NPT and stop all cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency if Iran’s nuclear case is referred to the United Nations Security Council under the dispute mechanism of the JCPOA triggered by the European sides, the MPs said in their letter to the parliament speaker.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has warned that Iran will raise the plan of quitting the NPT if the Europeans refer Iran’s nuclear case to the UN Security Council.

“If they (Europeans) take any action, the issue of quitting the NPT will be raised based on the letter of the President dating May 2018,” Zarif told ICANA in an interview published on January 20.

France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European states signatory to the JCPOA, issued a joint statement on January 14, announcing they have formally triggered the dispute mechanism which could bring the issue before the UN Security Council.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on January 24 that he had extended the time available to discuss ways to save the nuclear deal with Iran under the dispute mechanism triggered by the three European Union trio, also referred to as E3.

“There is agreement that more time is needed due to the complexity of the issues involved. The timeline is therefore extended,” Borrell said in a statement.

Borrell said the joint commission that regulates the Iran nuclear deal will meet in February but did not give a date.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi announced on Sunday that Borrell plans to pay a visit to Tehran on Monday for talks with Iran’s senior officials, including Javad Zarif.

U.S. President Donald Trump quit the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, in May 2018 and introduced the harshest ever sanctions in history on Iran as part of his administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy against Iran.

Mojtaba Zonnour, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, had warned earlier that Iran will mull leaving the NPT if the Europeans failed to salvage the pact.

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TEHRAN (Iran News) – Presiding Board of the Iranian Parliament, on Tuesday, received a proposed plan on Iran’s withdrawal from the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons Treaty, aka NPT.

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“The Islamic Republic, through reliance on its people’s culture of self-sacrifice and resistance, will not hesitate or compromise even a moment in defending its sovereignty and national security,” Foreign Ministry Spokesman Abbas Mousavi said.

“Iran will deliver a crushing and regret-inducing response to any such aggressive or foolish acts,” he added, the Ministry reported on Monday.

The response came after two Israeli ministers issued consecutive threats of military operation against Tehran.

On Sunday, Naftali Bennett, Israel’s minister for military affairs, claimed that Iran was ”trying to establish a ring of fire around” Israel. “It is already based in Lebanon and is trying to establish in Syria, Gaza and more,” he said.

Bennett said the regime had to increase its operations on the Syrian soil against what he called “Iranian targets.”

“We need to move from containment to attack,” he added, referring to the operations, which are already offensive in nature. “We say to Iran: Syria will become your Vietnam,” Bennett stated.

The Islamic Republic has routinely refuted claims of regional intervention leveled against it, verifying that its presence in Syria only serves to accommodate Damascus with military advisory support against militant groups and Takfiri terrorists.

Earlier, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz threatened a military operation against Iran with the help of the United States, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Katz alleged that such a front would rise to action in the event Iran sought “to acquire or stockpile nuclear weapons.”

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