In an interview with the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), Anton Khlopkov said that the second phase of the reduced commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action (JCPOA) announced by Iran to increase the level of enriched uranium represents the fact that Tehran does not want to see its rights violated.
Referring to the fact that the deal is a multilateral agreement, Khlopkov said that if one or more parties to the agreement fail to fulfill their obligations, they should not expect the other party to fully implement it.
He went on to say that Iran waited a year after the departure of the United States and took its first step and after the European Union failed to fulfill its obligations, Iran declared its second step.
The Russian expert believes that Iran treats transparency and does not hide anything in the framework of the nuclear arsenal and that its nuclear actions are under the control of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
He added: "Iran has explicitly announced that if other parties return to its implementation, Tehran will also proceed accordingly."
"But the European troika does not intend to really help to facilitate Iran's trade with other countries, and INSTEX only includes non-exclusive US sanctions", the director of Center for Energy and Security Studies (CENESS) of Russia noted.
The second phase of reduced commitment to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of action took effect on Monday with uranium enrichment higher than the 3.67 percent ceiling, the spokesman of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran said on Monday.
"Each phase of the reduction of commitments is defined for a two-month period," said Kamalvandi, adding that the 20 percent enrichment is one of the options for the third phase.
"We waited for two months and then started the second phase yesterday. Of course, the move was after a year-long patience so that the other party should have done its commitments; but they made no proper moves, so according to the order of the president and the Supreme National Security Council, we surpassed the 3.67 percent limit."
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