Contrary to some of the reporting and the analyses following Wednesday’s Iranian announcement that they were no longer in compliance with parts of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, this doesn’t mean that Iran is any less committed to the nuclear agreement. The announcement came exactly a year since US President Donald Trump himself announced that the US was withdrawing from the JCPOA, which raises the question, why did Iran wait an entire year to make its own tiny withdrawal in retaliation? The answer is clear. Even without the US, the most powerful and influential of the original signatories, in the deal. Even after a series of sanctions has been reimposed on Iran. Even after the Europeans have largely failed to compensate Iran for the losses accruing from these sanctions, despite their promises to do so, Iran is still in the deal. In fact, the non-compliances it announced Wednesday exactly mirror two waivers on the export of heavy water and enriched uranium which the US revoked a week ago. In other words, the only clauses in the JCPOA which Iran is now officially not complying with, limits on their stocks of heavy water and enriched uranium, are those which it can’t comply with anyway due to the new sanctions.

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