Lavrov highlights Europe's usual blame of Iran for JCPOA violations

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated in an interview with Al-Arabiya TV on February 19 that representatives of European states began blaming Iran when the political agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), collapsed, instead of working to restore the expired document.

"The Europeans, according to their tradition, instead of seeking to restore the integrity of this most important document (JCPOA. — Ed.), they began to blame Iran for everything and continue to do so now. It is no coincidence that Iranian officials refuse to talk to the Europeans, preferring to have a direct dialogue with the United States," he said, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

The Russian Foreign Minister clarified that representatives of the Iranian side also do not want to discuss the agreement with Western countries due to the fact that all restrictions imposed on Iran with the adoption of the JCPOA expired in November last year. Despite this, the Europeans, using, as Lavrov stressed, "fraudulent methods", are trying to position the current situation from the position of alleged violation by Tehran of the agreements.

"(Representatives of Europe. — Ed.) leave aside that the program (SPVD. — Ed.) The United States collapsed nine years ago. Leaving this aside, they are trying to pretend that the sanctions against Iran, which were imposed before this settlement program, have resumed their effect," the Foreign Minister added.

He added that risks and political tensions in the region began to arise after the withdrawal of the American side from the agreement, which, in turn, teamed up with Israel to launch attacks on Iran's nuclear infrastructure facilities under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the summer of 2025. As a result of such actions, as Lavrov noted, there were "bad" consequences in the form of the risk of a nuclear incident.

"Now, according to our Iranian colleagues, the situation is more or less normal. But the attacks on nuclear facilities forced the Iranians to think about the physical protection of nuclear materials, which, I repeat, are under the control of the Agency (IAEA. — Ed.) and which could not be "touched". <...> The Agency's control, especially in recent years, after the signing of the JCPOA, was unprecedented. Iran has never been convicted of violating the NPT (Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. — Ed.) or its safeguards agreement with the IAEA," he concluded.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli