TEHRAN, July 10 (Xinhua) -- The Irani Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani on Monday condemned the E3 group of Britain, France and Germany for their "failure to honor their obligations" under a 2015 nuclear deal.
Kanaani made the remarks at a weekly press conference in the capital Tehran in response to a meeting of the United Nations Security Council last week, the official news agency IRNA reported.
At the meeting, the European states, as well as the United States, accused Iran of sending drones to Russia for use against Ukraine and expressed concern over Tehran's "increased stockpile of enriched uranium beyond the limits set by the nuclear deal," formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Kanaani said since the U.S. unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA, the E3 group neither fulfilled their commitments under the deal nor compensated for Washington's pullout.
He added that the three European countries are blameworthy as they are "sitting in the claimant's position," hurling accusations at Iran and imposing "completely illegal" sanctions against Theran on "baseless claims," which are "absolutely illegal and unacceptable."
Kanaani condemned such actions as "unconstructive" for they have led nowhere but only disrupted a multilateral framework for settlement of outstanding differences.
The spokesman emphasized that Iran reserves the right to take "serious, proportionate and balanced" actions in response to such irresponsible moves at the right time.
Iran signed the JCPOA with world powers in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of the sanctions on the country. The U.S., however, pulled out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed its unilateral sanctions on Tehran, prompting the latter to drop some of its nuclear commitments under the deal.
The negotiations for the revival of the JCPOA commenced in April 2021 in Austria's capital Vienna. Despite several rounds of talks, no significant breakthrough has been achieved since the end of the last round in August 2022.
Ever since the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the West has been accusing Iran of sending drones to Moscow for military use. Iran has repeatedly rejected such allegations, saying it has given only a limited number of unmanned aerial vehicles to Russia months before the start of the conflict.
