China says unilateral withdrawal of US from JCPOA led to Iranian nuclear crisis

China has held the United States responsible for the ongoing Iranian nuclear crisis saying the unilateral withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) has been the root cause. During a regular press briefing on June 8, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said that the unilateral withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and maximum pressure through sanctions and lies at the root of the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Hua said that upholding and implementing the JCPOA is the only right way out of the Iranian nuclear issue and the US should stop taking “wrong moves” and obstructing others from JCPOA implementation. In 2015, the United States, Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France entered a deal agreeing to provide sanctions relief to Iran in lieu of preventing it from developing nuclear weapons.

Later in 2018, US President Donald Trump announced Washington’s withdrawal from the JCPOA calling it “the worst deal ever” and imposed sanctions on Iran. The United States has now publicly threatened to trigger all UN sanctions on Iran if the Security Council fails to extend the arms embargo which is due to expire in October.

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US threatened to trigger snapback

The Iran nuclear deal was enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution which still names the United States as a participant and the Trump administration is arguing on the technicality that Washington could still trigger a snapback. Snapback is basically a part of the dispute resolution process which could be initiated by a party to JCPOA if it feels that another party is not meeting its obligations, enabling the rapid re-imposition of existing sanctions.

The US has been trying to get the Security Council to renew the arms embargo on Iran that is set to expire in October. During a press briefing, Brian Hook, Special Representative to Iran, said that the US can not let the arms embargo to expire, adding there is a lot of policy precedent to support renewing the embargo.

Hook recently said that the door for “wider negotiations” with Iran about its nuclear program remains open after Tehran released a US Navy veteran in a so-called "prisoner swap". In order to get the Security Council resolution adopted, the US would need nine votes in favour and no vetoes from permanent members including Russia and China.

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