Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Wednesday urged support for the hard-reached Iran nuclear deal and his call was echoed by other major countries.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), clinched in July 2015 between Iran and the six world powers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States after decade-long negotiations, has helped defuse the Iran nuclear crisis and bolstered the international non-proliferation regime, Wang said.
The agreement is also an important outcome of global governance on security and a beneficial practice of solving a critical issue through political and diplomatic means, Wang said at a meeting of the foreign ministers of the six countries and Iran at the UN headquarters in New York.
While making headway, the implementation of the agreement also faces severe challenges, Wang added, hoping that Wednesday's meeting would send out a positive message of support for the JCPOA and facilitate its implementation.
The Chinese foreign minister said all parties should look at the positive side of the JCPOA as no agreement is perfect. If the pact is discarded, the international non-proliferation regime, with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons as its bedrock, would be severely impacted and the situation in the Middle East might worsen.
The recent development on the Korean Peninsula demonstrates the significance of the JCPOA, he added.
Wang also hoped that all parties would exercise the right political judgment and create favorable conditions for the implementation of the agreement.
He urged them to discharge their obligations to ensure effective implementation of the deal and solve their differences through dialogue.
China supports the JCPOA and is willing to work to preserve it and continue its participation in the implementation process, he said.
The JCPOA faces the risk of collapse amid a fallout between Washington and Tehran.
In his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump called the agreement "an embarrassment."
In response, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that his country will not be the first to violate the agreement, but will respond "decisively and resolutely" to its violation by any party.
"It will be a great pity if this agreement were to be destroyed by rogue newcomers to the world of politics," Rouhani told the UN General Assembly, in a tacit reference to Trump's attack a day earlier.
China's stance was shared by other world powers at the meeting.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Iran nuclear deal was one of the "more important factors of regional and international security."
Germany's Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel expressed concerns that if the "the only international example" of nuclear disarmament was discarded, it would be a blow to global efforts to persuade the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to refrain from its nuclear endeavor.
