MOSCOW, January 9. /TASS/: US President Donald Trump’s gamble to urge other countries to abandon the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear program and hammer out a new deal will hardly garner their support, Ivan Timofeev, Program Director of the Valdai Discussion Club and Director of Programs at the Russian International Affairs Council (RIAC), told TASS on Thursday.
"The chances of a new comprehensive deal on Iran, which Washington has been zealously promoting, are slim," he noted. "Besides, it is unlikely to enlist the support of other countries for this plan."
"No one has ever seen the new US-proposed plan," the expert added.
In turn, Russia and China can call on the US to return to compliance with the deal and lift anti-Iranian sanctions, Timofeev pointed out.
According to the political commentator, Tehran has been abiding by the nuclear deal. Despite the fact that General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite Quds Force, was killed in a US strike in Baghdad on January 3, "Iran has maintained all contacts with the IAEA, and everything is transparent," he said.
Tensions around Iran flared up after the US drone strike at Baghdad International Airport, which killed Soleimani. On January 8, Iran retaliated by launching missile strikes on two military facilities in Iraq used by the United States. According to the Pentagon’s spokesperson, the Al-Asad Air Base and the airport of Erbil were targeted.
On January 5, Iran announced the final phase of scaling back its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal. Tehran’s new move implies that it will not comply with the restrictions on the number of uranium enrichment centrifuges set forth by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
