In 2015, Iran signed the JCPOA with the P5+1 group of countries (the United States, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom - plus Germany) and the European Union.

It required Iran to scale back its nuclear program and severely downgrade its uranium reserves in exchange for sanctions relief, including lifting the arms embargo five years after the deal's adoption. In 2018, the US abandoned its conciliatory stance on Iran, withdrawing from the JCPOA and implementing hard-line policies against Tehran, prompting Iran to largely abandon its obligations under the accord.

In December 2020, Iran passed a law to increase its uranium enrichment and stop UN inspections of its nuclear sites in response to the killing of nuclear physicist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. At the start of January, Iran’s atomic energy organization announced that the country had succeeded in enriching uranium at 20 percent at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant.

In February, Iran’s restrictions on inspections of the country’s nuclear facilities by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) entered into force. Tehran said it was still going to continue to fully implement the Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, according to a joint statement from the IAEA and the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI).

Earlier in March, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araghchi told Sputnik that the Iran nuclear deal is at high risk of being destroyed if Washington does not come back to the agreement.

Araghchi said that if the US does not return to the deal, the fate of the JCPOA will depend on Russia, China and Iran itself, which will remain in the agreement as long as it meets the nation’s needs.