Iranian Lawmaker says we are working on a plan to withdraw from NPT
"We are working on a plan to withdraw from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as one possible response", a reformist member of the Iranian parliament Mahmoud Sadeghi told ILNA.
Speaking to ILNA news agency correspondent, Iranian parliamentarian said that NPT is not an irrevocable treaty. According to NPT's 10 articles, Each Party shall in exercising its national sovereignty have the right to withdraw from the Treaty if it decides that extraordinary events, related to the subject matter of this Treaty.
"Iran could use this article as a trigger mechanism against European counterpart," Mahmoud Sadeghi confirmed.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said last April that the Tehran is considering withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as one possible response to the latest tightening of U.S. sanctions.
The NPT requires non-nuclear weapon states to disavow the development and acquisition of nuclear weapons.
The NPT allows the U.S., China, Russia, Britain and France – the only five countries with nuclear weapons at the time the treaty opened for signature in 1968 – to possess them, but not to transfer nuclear materials to other states.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since the Trump administration withdrew last year from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up sanctions.
Iran announced its fifth breach of the 2015 nuclear deal Jan. 5, stating that it “discards the last key component of its operational limitations” put in place by agreement.
Britain, France and Germany triggered the dispute resolution mechanism in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, two European diplomats said on 14 January, the biggest step the Europeans have taken in response as Tehran has backed off nuclear commitments.
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