Iran: Nuclear Power

(asked on 15th January 2020) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the President of the United States about his government’s assessment in 2018 that Iran was in breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action; what assessment they have made of the impact of the decision by the UK not to reach the same assessment at that time; and what discussions they have had with the government of the US since the government of Iran’s declaration that it will no longer abide by any restrictions imposed by that nuclear deal.


Answered by
 Portrait
Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon
Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 22nd January 2020

The UK worked very closely with France, Germany and US counterparts to address President Trump's concerns that Iran was in breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), involving months of intense discussions. We have been consistently clear that the JCPoA remains the best way of preventing nuclear proliferation and we hope it will remain. We want to see Iran come back to full compliance, and remain in close contact with our European partners and the US on this issue.

The UK is in close contact with the US at a number of levels: the Prime Minister spoke to President Trump on 8 and 12 January and the Foreign Secretary met with Secretary of State Pompeo in Washington on 9 January. As the Prime Minister has said before, including in New York in September 2019, if in the future we could agree a better deal with Iran that has the support of the US, then that is something we would work towards.

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