On May 8, 2018, U.S President Donald Trump announced the withdrawal of the United States from the the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran, known as JCPOA, and subsequently restored sanctions against Iran. What were the commitments the signatories of the JCPOA signed up for and which of them have been fulfilled?
On July 14, 2015, Iran signed an agreement with the United States, Russia, China , France, Great Britain and Germany. The cornerstone of the agreement was the two-thirds reduction of its active uranium-enriching centrifuges. At the time Iran had 19,000 centrifuges of which 10,200 were active.
U.S. and other signatories of the agreement began lifting economic sanctions against Iran. The IAEA has verified that Iran has reduced the number of centrifuges to 6,104 and only 5,060 are active.
The agreement also stipulated that if Iran fulfilled its side of the deal the international arms embargo would end in 2020. This would take into account Iran's activity in Syria, Yemen or Lebanon .
The embargo on ballistic missile components would expire with the exception of components for nuclear warheads.
Iran would no longer have a cap on active centrifuges and the controls on acquisition of sensitive nuclear materials would also expire. The cap of five thousand first generation centrifuges was set in the agreement.
Fifteen years after the agreement Iran would no longer be required to abide by a cap on stockpiled enriched uranium. The limit in the JCPOA was set to 300 kilograms from 2015-2030. However, the key change in 2030 will be lifting the ban on Iran’s development of heavy water reactors.
With a mandate to inspect a limited number of sites and excluding military sites the IAEA inspections would no longer be required for Iran effectively ending the agreement.
