Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova’s comment regarding EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell’s statement concerning the UK, Germany and France’s plans to take steps contrary to UNSC Resolution 2231

On September 14, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell released a statement as Coordinator of the JCPOA Joint Commission saying he had received a letter from the foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Germany and France, who officially informed him of their intention not to take the steps regarding the lifting of sanctions stipulated by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 on JCPOA Transition Day on October 18, 2023. 

This is about provisions concerning Iran’s missile programme as well as the freezing of assets belonging to a number of individuals and legal entities of the Islamic Republic of Iran. These requirements were not relevant to the deal on the Iranian nuclear programme and were therefore imposed on a temporary basis. They were not meant to be extended.

To create the impression that their ploy does not violate UNSC Resolution 2231, Berlin, London and Paris referred to their January 2020 efforts to launch the Dispute Resolution Mechanism under Paragraph 36 of the JCPOA.

The present statement by the two EU nations and the UK was not considered within the Joint Commission. No decisions have been taken by the JCPOA parties which could be interpreted as consent or a green light. 

From the legal perspective, the course of actions they have outlined is arbitrary and shows that they have lost interest in restoring full implementation of the JCPOA and are unwilling to rectify the violations of UNSC Resolution 2231 they committed.

References to the Dispute Resolution Mechanism are intended for the uninformed public and should not mislead anyone. This mechanism is known not to have been activated due to the absence of necessary procedures and decisions of the Joint Commission. Without clarity on this issue, it has proved impossible to start the clock and begin work within the framework of the Mechanism. The Russian side has clarified this sensitive issue on numerous occasions and in the most detailed manner, including on January 14 and 24, 2020. Thus, the claims of our European colleagues that they have fulfilled the requirements of paragraph 36 of the JCPOA are not true.

We strongly condemn the United Kingdom, Germany and France for seeking to deliberately violate the requirements of the JCPOA and United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231. If they get their way, it will deal a crushing blow to the prospects for restoring the nuclear deal. However, we would not like to think that the European attacks were more than accidental, given that they came at the exact moment when certain prerequisites appeared for intensifying efforts to restart the JCPOA, created by developments in the indirect dialogue between Iran and the United States.

We urge the European parties to the JCPOA to immediately reverse their destructive course and adhere to their international obligations in strict compliance with UNSC Resolution 2231. The expectation that they will be able to remould the expired requirements of the resolution and turn them into a new sanctions regime against Iran is absolutely illusory. Contrary to Western speculation, the resolution does not prohibit cooperation with Tehran in the missile sphere; such cooperation is allowed provided that supplies are approved by the UN Security Council. Berlin, London and Paris mistakenly interpreted this as an embargo, confident in their ability to block supplies that do not suit them. From October 18, everything will be back to normal.

We proceed from the premise that illegal and opportunistic decisions of individual countries taken at the national level cannot have legal consequences for other states. We condemn the vicious practice of unilateral sanctions and their extraterritorial application – an ugly manifestation of the "rules-based world order" promoted by the West.