On Friday, January 14, the delegations of the eighth round of JCPOA negotiations returned to the capitals for official consultations, while expert working groups continue discussing the issue. The American side is concerned that Iran's nuclear progress "will be too difficult to reverse," meaning there are only a few weeks left for negotiations. According to representatives of the United States, Washington is prepared for either outcome.

"And, by the way, the coronavirus pandemic, which has brought us very great disasters - economic, social, and human losses – can be a demonstration on a small scale of what can happen if, God forbid, a nuclear catastrophe happens. Here is what we are now seeing around us in connection with the pandemic – this is a tiny cartoon frame of what one can imagine, in case, God forbid, the worst cannot be avoided! And if this had happened, then all the disasters of the pandemic would have been remembered by all those who survived as some kind of childish prank", - Alexei Arbatov, Head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO).

On January 13, 1993, the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction was signed (also known as Chemical Weapons Convention, CWC). According to Art. I, States Parties are obliged not to develop, produce, or use chemical weapons, not to carry out military preparations for their use; to destroy all chemical weapons in their possession or abandoned by them on the territory of another State Party; destroy any facilities producing such weapons, and not use riot control chemicals as a weapon of war.