International law perspective on the JCPOA and Post-JCPOA

Signed on July 14, 2015, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded the long-term negotiations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran and the P5+1. Following this document's signature and only six days later, on July 20, 2015, the Security Council Resolution 2231 was adopted. All previous sanctions of the United Nations Security Council were terminated, and Security Council asked all parties of the JCPOA to implement the action plan completely. The negligence of Western parties, especially the United States, in the months following the implementation of the JCPOA and, more specifically, after President Trump's inauguration, conflicted with the good faith in implementing the UNHCR's international obligations. As part of accountability and critical analysis of the measures to control the enrichment of uranium in Iran and its access to nuclear power, this paper will seek to find the impact of the United States' exit from the agreement on both Iran and the United States' security. Considering the Security Council Resolution 2231 on the need for full implementation of the U.N. Security Council and refraining from any action undermining this instrument of cooperation, the remarks of the U.S. President and some actions taken by his administration and the Congress on UNSC undermined this document and was contrary to the spirit of the U.N. Security Council and binding Resolution 2231, acknowledged as well by the European Union, European countries and Russia.  To attain the specifications of this research, a descriptive methodology will be used. The advantages presented by this method include enabling the collection of a significant amount of data at once; it is less costly and presents the researcher with diverse ways of collecting primary data, which is key in establishing existing circumstances on the impact of U.S. exit from the JCPOA agreement. In terms of data collection, the study will use both quantitative and qualitative approaches. A qualitative approach will be used to collect data in numeral form, while a quantitative will be used to collect data describing attitudes and views from interviewees.