This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
Iranian President Hassan Rohani says his country “has made a decision to terminate the implementation of some of its obligations” under a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.
Rohani made the remarks on June 15 in Dushanbe at a summit of a 27-member regional grouping called the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA).
Rohani said Tehran is “continuing to adhere to the obligations it assumed” under the 2015 nuclear deal despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the accord and reimpose sanctions against Iran.
But he said the decision to stop adhering to some obligations under the agreement was made because of what he called “confrontation” by the United States, Trump’s “withdrawal from this deal,” and the imposition of what he called “illegal unfounded sanctions supported by other parties.”
“In the absence of positive comment from other parties, Iran will continue working” toward ending its adherence to some of its obligations under the nuclear deal, Rohani told the CICA summit – which has gathered together leaders from 27 countries in the grouping and 13 observer states and international institutions.
The June 15 summit is being attended by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and leaders from Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, and India.
They had all gathered a day earlier in neighboring Kyrgyzstan for a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).
Other members of the CICA group represented at the Dushanbe summit on June 15 include Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Mongolia, Turkey, Egypt, Israel, South Korea, and Arab states from the Persian Gulf region.
Observers at the Dushanbe summit include the United States, Ukraine, Belarus, Japan, the United Nations, and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Speaking at the start of the June 15 summit, Putin called on CICA members to “facilitate efforts to ease tensions” on the Korean Peninsula and “ensure security in northeast Asia.”
Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov says Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “briefly talked on the go” before the beginning of the CICA summit.
Peskov said the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey also took part in the conversation, which lasted for several minutes.
On June 14, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Turkey’s government will retaliate against any possible sanctions imposed against Ankara by the United States over Turkey’s deal to buy the S-400 surface-to-air missile-defense system from Russia.
Ankara’s deal with Russia has damaged relations between Turkey and the United States, which are both NATO allies.
Washington has warned turkey of possible sanctions if Ankara takes delivery of the Russian missile system.
