TEHRAN, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said Saturday that all United Nations Security Council resolutions and restrictions on its nuclear program are no longer legally binding as of Saturday.
He made the remarks in a letter addressed to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Vassily A. Nebenzia, Security Council's president for October, as a 10-year nuclear deal between Iran and world powers, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and Resolution 2231 that endorses it expired on Saturday, according to a statement released by the Iranian Foreign Ministry.
Araghchi said after Oct. 18, all provisions of the resolution 2231 and the preceding sanctions resolutions should automatically terminate with no continuing legal effect.
Iran signed the JCPOA with six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States -- in July 2015, agreeing to put some curbs on its nuclear program in return for the removal of sanctions, including those of the UN. The United States, however, pulled out of the JCPOA in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to scale back its commitments under the deal.
In late August, France, Britain and Germany, collectively known as the E3, triggered the "snapback" mechanism, leading to the reimposition of UN sanctions on Iran.
The sanctions include an embargo on conventional arms sales, restrictions on ballistic missile tests, asset freezes against key figures involved in Iran's nuclear and missile activities, financial and banking limitations, and prohibitions on uranium enrichment or reprocessing.
Araghchi described the E3's invoke of the snapback mechanism "clear abuse of process and contrary to both the letter and spirit of Resolution 2231 and the JCPOA."
Araghchi highlighted Iran's record of "constructive engagement, including its numerous rounds of consultations with the European participants and even negotiations with the United States," saying it demonstrated the country's "consistent commitment to diplomacy." ■