Blinken Told Lavrov Return to JCPOA Deal With Iran to Become Pointless Soon

WASHINGTON, October 6 (Sputnik) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday discussed the progress made on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and noted that there was not much time left before a return to the original agreement becomes pointless.

“Yes, we [Blinken and Lavrov] focused on the JCPOA,” Blinken said during a press briefing at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development conference in Paris. “Given what Iran is doing with its nuclear program […],  we are getting closer and closer to a point where simply returning to compliance with the JCPOA won't recapture the benefits of the agreement.”

Blinken reiterated that both Russia and the US are interested in seeing a mutual return to compliance with the JCPOA.

Earlier in the day, following a meeting with the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, Lavrov said that Tehran is ready to resume negotiations on the JCPOA in Vienna as soon as possible.

In 2015, Iran signed the nuclear deal with the P5+1 group, which includes the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, Germany and the European Union. It required Tehran to scale back its nuclear program and severely reduce its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including the lifting of an arms embargo five years after the deal was inked.

In 2018, the US abandoned its conciliatory stance, withdrawing from the JCPOA and implementing hardline policies against Iran, prompting the latter to largely abandon its own obligations under the accord.

Since April, Vienna has been hosting talks aimed at preventing the Iran nuclear deal from failing altogether. The sixth round of the talks finished on June 20 and the negotiations have since hit a deadlock.