Global Geopolitical Series: EU lawmakers urges Congress to stop Trump from ripping JCPOA

As many as 300 European Union lawmakers have urged the U.S. Congress to prevent U.S. President Donald Trump from ripping up the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as Iran nuclear agreement as he signaled that he is signing the sanctions waiver for the last time unless Trump administration’s concerns with the nuclear agreement are addressed, when he signed it in January.

In 2015, Iran signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with the United States and other five world powers; Russia, China, Germany, France and the United Kingdom. The deal required the U.S. President to certify Iran’s compliance with the agreement. However, Trump, who has been very critical of the agreement and often called it as the worst deal ever made, refused to recertify Iran’s compliance with the agreement in October and in January, said that he is signing the sanctions waiver for the last time. The deadline for the next signature is on 12th May and if he fails to sign the waivers, which needed to be extended every 120 days, the restrictions on Iran will be automatically re-imposed. Iran has threatened to cancel the agreement if the sanctions on oil are re-imposed. It has also threatened to speed up the Uranium enrichment process if the deal gets canceled due to Trump’s refusal to sign the waiver.

The lawmakers, largely from the UK, Germany, and France wrote an open letter to U.S. Congress urging to make Trump sign the waiver. The letter was published by Guardian here, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/19/open-letter-us-congress-trump-iran-deal , where the said, “After 13 years of joint diplomatic effort, we reached a major breakthrough and signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran, France, the UK, Germany, the US, China, and Russia, regarding Tehran‘s nuclear programme. With that, we were able to impose unprecedented scrutiny on the Iranian nuclear programme, dismantle most of their nuclear enrichment facilities, and drastically reduce the danger of a nuclear arms race. Not a drop of blood was spilt. Furthermore, these controls will not cease after the 10 years of the JCPOA: Iran will continue to be subject to the strict controls prescribed by the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, which will continue to limit enrichment.”

The letter also warns against the fallout from canceling the agreement, “But this coalition is now at risk, as the US government moves towards abandoning the JCPOA without any evidence of Iran not fulfilling its obligations. The short-term effect of this abandonment would be the end of controls on Iran‘s nuclear programme, resulting in another source of devastating conflict in the Middle East and beyond. The long-term risk is even more serious: lasting damage to our credibility as international partners in negotiation and, more generally, to diplomacy as a tool to achieve peace and ensure security. Abandoning the deal would diminish the value of any promises or threats made by our countries.”

As of latest report, President Trump is still on track to cancel the agreement.