Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote a letter to the foreign ministers of the countries who signed on to the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to update them on the status of attempts to keep the deal alive despite the US withdrawal.

In the letter, Zarif called the US exit from the deal between Iran, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany “impulsive, unlawful and provocative.” Zarif wrote that US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s threats to punish countries that continue to deal with Iran violated US commitments to the JCPOA, "failed to comply with the unanimously adopted" UN Security Council Resolution 2231 and "breached the Charter of the United Nations and showed their contempt for international law.”

The letter said the International Atomic Energy Agency, the nuclear watchdog of the United Nations, has repeatedly confirmed that Iran has lived up to its obligations of the nuclear accord. Zarif wrote, “If the JCPOA is to survive, the remaining JCPOA participants need to ensure that Iran is unconditionally compensated.”

The letter, which Zarif published as screenshots on his personal Twitter page June 7, is dated May 23. The tweet was accompanied by the text, “My letter to fellow foreign ministers on steps to take to address US unlawful withdrawal from JCPOA.” However, the letter did not offer specific steps other than insistence on continued sanctions relief.