Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of Iran's recent announcement to cease all commitments under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

We are deeply concerned by Iran’s recent announcement. As the Prime Minister said on 8 January, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) remains the best way of preventing nuclear proliferation in Iran and we hope it will remain. The Prime Minister made this clear to President Rouhani when they spoke on 9 January, strongly urging Iran to reverse all measures inconsistent with the deal and to come back into compliance with it.

On 14 January the E3 initiated the JCPoA's Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM). We are committed to using the DRM in good faith to find a viable resolution to Iran’s compliance issues.

The Prime Minister and I have also spoken to European partners in recent days and will continue to do so to find a way forward. We need a deal which everyone respects the terms of, and which takes the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran off the table.