Iran has decided not to follow its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal, also called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has demanded billions of dollars in compensation from Iraq or has threatened to impose “never seen before” sanctions on Iraq as the parliament voted to expel US troops from the nation.
This comes as tensions escalated between US and Iran over the US drone attack that killed Major General Qassim Soleimani last Thursday.
The Iranian state media attributed a statement to President Hassan Rouhani which stated that Iran will no longer follow the limits set under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action 2015 related to uranium enrichment, stockpile and research activities.
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“The Iranian state no longer faces any limitation as far as operations are concerned” the state media said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron urged Iran to continue abiding by its commitments.
Iran, however, has assured that it is still open to negotiations with its partners.
The deal which was negotiated in 2015 has seen Iran mostly abiding to its commitments, as confirmed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It was US President Donald Trump who withdrew from the deal in 2018.
Meanwhile, on Sunday, the Iraqi parliament voted against US troop presence in Iraq. There are about 5200 US troops stationed in Iraq to fight the terrorists belonging to the Islamic State (IS). The vote has to now be endorsed by the Iraqi government. Reports suggest that the outgoing Prime Minister is expected to endorse the resolution.
President Trump has warned Iraq that the US will not leave till the time it is compensated. He said: “we have an extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It costs billions of dollars to build. Long before my time. We are not leaving until they pay us back for it.”
He threatened Iraq of sanctions by stating that “if they do ask us to leave, if we don’t do it in a very friendly basis, we will charge them sanctions like they have never seen before. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame”.
These two developments are expected to assist in the resurgence of the Islamic State which had received a set back after the killing of its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi in October 2019. It is also expected to revive and increase tensions in the West Asian region which is already in turmoil.