Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that Iran would not take any more steps to reduce its commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal, but that if the Europeans continue their “improper behavior” against Iran, it would withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
“The steps of reducing commitments are finished, but if the Europeans continue their improper behavior or send Iran’s file to the Security Council, we will withdraw from the NPT,” said Zarif, according to Reuters.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi took a more conciliatory tone, saying on Monday that Tehran has not ruled out talks to end the nuclear dispute.
Any further move by Iran to scale back its commitments under the nuclear deal would depend on actions by other parties, said Mousavi, according to Reuters.
Tehran announced on Sunday that it was reconsidering its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following the triggering last week of the nuclear deal’s dispute resolution mechanism by the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said, “We state openly that if the European powers, for any reason, adopt an unfair approach in using the dispute mechanism, we will seriously reconsider our cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.”
Meanwhile, on Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko told reporters at a meeting with a visiting Iranian delegation that Ukraine is going to push Iran to deliver the black boxes of a Ukrainian passenger plane shot down by the Iranian military on Jan. 8.
“[Iran’s] main task is to apologize and acknowledge what happened. We hope that we can go a little further than just political discussions and discuss practical problems. Among them in particular is the return of the black boxes,” said Prystaiko, according to Reuters.
Iran said on Sunday that it was still analyzing the black boxes and denied a report that it planned to hand them over to Ukraine.
