Written question asked by Matthew Offord (Conservative) on Friday, 4 September 2015, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 8 September 2015. It was answered by Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) on Friday, 11 September 2015 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Iran: Nuclear Power

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what processes will initiate snap break of sanctions on Iran if a breach of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action takes place.

Answer: If a party to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) thinks there has been a violation of the JCPoA they should notify the Joint Commission. The Joint Commission will discuss these concerns with a view to resolving them within 15 days. If the Joint Commission cannot resolve the matter, it will be considered by an Advisory Panel made up of the complainant, defendant and an independent party, and may also be considered in parallel by Foreign Ministers. If the concern still cannot be resolved and the complainant believes that the violation constitutes significant non-performance of JCPoA commitments then the matter will be escalated to the UN Security Council, which will vote on a resolution to continue the lifting of sanctions. If the Security Council does not adopt this resolution within 30 days, nuclear-related UN sanctions will automatically ‘snapback’. In addition to UN sanctions, the US and the EU can re-impose sanctions if Iran is in breach of its commitments.

Secondary information