Legal and Geopolitical Implications of US Unilateral Withdrawal from the Nuclear Agreement

Abstract

After several years of negotiations, and almost five years of sanctions imposed on Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was signed between the USA, Iran, China, Russia, the UK, France, Germany and EU on 14 July 2015, which was intended to lift the economic sanctions against Iran. The multilateral agreement was sanctioned legally and enforced by a United Nations Security Council resolution. The JCPOA, commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal, followed an “Iran Nuclear Deal framework for the Final Agreement” that was reached on 10 April 2015 in Lausanne, Switzerland, which in turn followed a preliminary agreement on a Joint Plan of Action reached in November 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland. However, on 8 May 2018 US President Donald Trump announced that the USA withdrew from the deal.