MOSCOW, July 27. /TASS/. Russia is going to insist at the coming meeting of the joint commission on the implementation of the Iranian nuclear deal that the reduction of Iran’s obligations still leaves the room for saving the deal, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in an interview with TASS.

The meeting of the commission at the level of political directors will be held on Sunday, he added.

"We will discuss the schedule of a possible complication of the situation in connection with the steps the Iranians announced earlier. We will insist in our national capacity that the selective and reversible nature of the measures announced by the Iranians leaves enough room for a political and diplomatic maneuver," he said.

Ryabkov added that the meeting both evaluation of Iran’s actions according to the "less for less" pattern and the practical implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) will be discussed.

"We urge Iranians to prevent further escalation steps, to show responsibility. But nobody canceled projects in Fordow and Arak," the high-ranking diplomat stressed.

Iran nuclear deal

In 2015, Iran and six international mediators (the five member states of the United Nations Security Council - Russia, the United States, France, the United Kingdom and China - and Germany) agreed on the final Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) for the Iranian nuclear program. Tehran pledged to produce no weapons-grade plutonium, to have no more than 300 kg of uranium enriched to 3.67% for a period of fifteen years, reequip its nuclear facilities and use them exclusively for peaceful purposes.

Tensions over Iran’s nuclear program exacerbated after Washington unilaterally withdrew from the JCPOA on May 8, 2018 and slapped US economic sanctions on Iran’s oil exports.

Exactly one year later, Rouhani stated that Tehran suspended part of its obligations under the nuclear deal and gives other participants two months to return to its implementation.

On July 8, the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran had surpassed the 3.67% uranium enrichment limit envisioned by the Iran nuclear deal.