Iran will pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal unless it receives concrete guarantees that the economic incentives of the pact will be protected by the other parties following the U.S. decision to withdraw, a senior Iranian official said Friday.
"We are still complying but we have not decided whether to yet to stay in the deal or not," the official told a small group of reporters on condition of anonymity, according to The Associated Press.
"It depends on the remaining JCPOA participants, if they can actually compensate for the absence of the United States in the deal," said the official, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as the deal is known.
The other signatories to the deal met on Friday for the first time without the U.S. after Iran called for an urgent meeting of the body in Vienna, reported AP. Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia reaffirmed their commitment to the deal, and the Iranian delegation emerged saying they were more confident than before, and made no mention of timelines.
President Donald Trump announced earlier this month that he would pull out of the Iran deal and would reimpose sanctions on the Islamic Republic that were frozen as part of the agreement.
While Trump withdrew from the Iran deal and announced he would reimpose sanctions on Iran, the European Union did not follow suit, and said it would remain in the agreement and will do so “as long as Iran continues to implement its nuclear related commitments, as it is doing so far.”
Speaking ahead of the Vienna talks, the Iranian official said that for his country to stay in the deal, the sanctions relief that it was granted would have to be guaranteed by the other parties involved and that Tehran needs specifics on how that will happen by the end of May.
Tehran will make its final decision in a "few weeks", said the official, who added that in theory the deal can survive without the U.S., but acknowledged "in practice I'm not sure."
EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said recently that the European signatories to the agreement are talking about solutions to keep the deal alive but also indicated that the EU cannot provide legal and economic guarantees to Iran.
