Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the benefits of triggering the dispute settlement mechanism under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, following the government of Iran’s statement that it will no longer abide by any of the restrictions imposed by that nuclear deal.

We are committed to bringing Iran back into full compliance with its Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) commitments and preserving the nuclear deal. Iran's reduced compliance has non-proliferation consequences. The Dispute Resolution Mechanism (DRM) is a process to address this serious issue and we are committed to using it in good faith to find a viable resolution to Iran's compliance issues. The UK remains determined to work with Iran on a diplomatic way forward. As the joint statement from the Prime Minister, President Macron and Chancellor Merkel said on 14 January we need to define a long-term framework for Iran's nuclear programme. We need a deal which everyone respects the terms of, and which takes the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran off the table.

Parties to the deal control this process – it is designed to be flexible and extendable in order to find a solution to the problem. Our objective in triggering the DRM is to preserve the nuclear deal and bring Iran back into compliance.