Guterres, Qatar FM hold talks on JCPOA

The phone talks followed after Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani visited Tehran on February 15 at the head of a high-ranking delegation.

Relations between Iran and Qatar has been growing in recent years. Qatar has already announced it is ready to mediate between Iran and the U.S. to revitalize the JCPOA.  “The State of Qatar is working on de-escalation through a political and diplomatic process to return to the nuclear agreement,” the Qatari chief diplomat said, according to Reuters. 

The remarks by Qatar’s foreign minister came after with U.S. Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley and U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

In May 2018 the landmark nuclear deal was unilaterally ditched by former U.S. president Donald Trump in line with his policy of “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. Iran has denounced the illegal sanctions as an act of “economic terrorism.”

The U.S. exit from the pact was met with worldwide criticism. A year after the U.S. pullout from the agreement backed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231, Iran said its “strategic patience” is over and started to gradually reduce its nuclear commitments in accordance to paragraph 36 of the JCPOA. However, Tehran has been repeatedly saying that it will return to full compliance as soon as its interests are met under the JCPOA.

Source: Tehran Times