An Iran envoy has said that if the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear agreement collapses, "it would be a failure of European Union (EU) values".

Gholam Hossein Dehghani, Iran's ambassador to Belgium, made the remarks yesterday in an article marking the deal's fifth anniversary, reports Xinhua news agency.

Dehghani penned the article against the backdrop of perils for the calling off of the JCPOA after the US' unilateral exit from the pact and the EU's "insufficient" response to Washington's intention to paralyze Iran's economy and to hurt its economic interests guaranteed under the deal sealed five years ago.

The JCPOA was reached in July 2015 to find a long-term comprehensive solution to the Iranian nuclear issue.

It was endorsed by the UN Security Council and supported by the EU.

However, US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the multilateral nuclear agreement in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions against Iran.

Iran then began to gradually reduce its commitments under the pact in retaliation for Washington's departure and Europe's "failure to honour their commitments".

Iran has repeatedly criticized Europe's sluggishness in facilitating Iran's banking transactions and its oil exports which have been targeted by the US' so-called maximum pressure campaign.

"How Europe behaves towards the JCPOA, particularly under the current circumstances, determines the fate of its quest for foreign policy integration in the years to come and will irrevocably define the sort of player it aspires to be on the international scene," Dehghani added..