News Desk
TEHRAN: Iran declared that a critical time limitation within the landmark 2015 nuclear accord had expired, formally asserting that it was no longer bound by the restrictions of the deal it once signed with world powers.
The Iranian foreign ministry announced that all clauses of the agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), had reached their expiry date, concluding the pact while maintaining that the nation remained “committed to diplomacy.”
The declaration from Tehran marked a significant hardening of Iran’s position and was poised to raise fresh international alarm over the future of its nuclear program and the potential for heightened instability across a already tense region.
The 2015 agreement, a signature diplomatic achievement of its time, was signed between Iran and a consortium of nations including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China.
Its architects had designed it to offer Iran a pathway back into the global community, with the nation agreeing to drastically curtail its sensitive nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of crippling international economic sanctions.
That delicate balance was shattered in 2018 when the administration of then-US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the United States from the agreement and began reimposing a harsh regime of sanctions, a move that eviscerated the economic relief Tehran had been promised.
In the years of diplomatic turmoil that followed, the remaining European and other signatories struggled in vain to keep the crippled agreement on life support, as Iran gradually and publicly stepped away from its own nuclear commitments in response to the renewed economic pressure.
