Araghchi departs for Vienna to attend JCPOA joint commission meeting

Co-chaired by Araghchi and European External Action Service Helga Schmid, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) joint commission meeting will be held in Vienna, Austria on Wednesday, with deputy foreign ministers of Germany, UK, France, Russia, and China in attendance.

According to reports, Araghchi will also hold separate meetings with some of his counterparts and also with Helga Schmid on Tuesday.

Iranian and other countries’ delegations have started expert meetings from Monday. The Wednesday session will be focused on ways to get around US unilateral sanctions against Iran, as well as solutions to implement remaining parties' commitments.

The workgroup to implement lifting sanctions is scheduled to get underway in Vienna on Tuesday morning.

Director General of The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano said on Monday that Tehran is implementing all its commitments under JCPOA.

IAEA has always endorsed Iran’s adherence to its commitments after the inking of JCPOA in 2015, however, Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal and re-imposed harsh sanctions against the Iranian nation in May 2018.

Other signatories of the deal have vowed to keep it alive. After months of delay, European signatories, i.e. Germany, UK, and France established a financial mechanism dubbed as INSTEX (Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges) to facilitate trade ties with Iran and ditch US sanctions, however, the channel is yet to prove its true effectiveness. Meanwhile, Iran calls for the adoption of more practical measures by JCPOA signatories to safeguard Tehran’s interest.

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