Tabnak – While the US President Donald Trump has been recently trying to delegitimize Iran’s nuclear deal, calling for renegotiating the accord, Iran’s Foreign Minister makes clear Tehran’s position in this regard. He has also warned the Western countries of the consequences of non-commitment to the nuclear deal.
Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed any re-negotiations of the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, including the US, saying Washington is merely after getting more Iranian concessions under the accord with no new concessions from itself or other signatories in return.
In an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said US wants to change the deal at Iran’s expense alone, while Washington itself is not willing to make any concessions.
The top Iranian diplomat further said that kind of position contradicted the premise of any negotiated deal. If the nuclear accord is supposed to change, then every concession Iran has made to help make the deal happen has to be reconsidered, he noted.
"Why should we discuss an addendum?,” he asked. "If you want to have an addendum, there has to be an addendum on everything… Are you prepared to return to us 10 tons of enriched uranium?,” Zarif also asked, referring to the stockpile, which was shipped to Russia as part of the deal.
Also in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono on the sidelines of the 72nd annual session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York Zarif said Donald Trump’s position on the landmark nuclear deal signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries prove that any talks with Washington will bear no fruits.
"The stance [adopted by] the current US administration on the JCPOA (nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or the JCPOA) conveys this message to the world that any negotiations with the US will be useless,” Zarif said.
However, Zarif was not the only Iranian official who slammed Trump’s recent UN speech. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the US was the most isolated country at the UN over its stance on Iran's nuclear accord, citing President Donald Trump’s attack on the agreement while other world leaders defended it.
Trump "spoke against the JCPOA while all spoke in favor of the JCPOA at the UN," Rouhani said. The US went against the tide and was "the most isolated country at the UN over the nuclear agreement, which has been certified by the UN,” he added.
Also on Thursday, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei censured US President Donald Trump’s latest hostile comments against the Iranian nation at the UN as "ugly”, "foolish” and "sheer lies.”
"That foolish, extremely ugly and hideous speech by the US president, with its gangster and cowboy language fraught with sheer lies, stems from their fury, frustration and light-headedness,” the Leader said.
During his speech at the General Assembly on Tuesday, Trump said the internationally-negotiated nuclear agreement with Iran is an "embarrassment” to the United States.
The Trump administration has desperately sought a pretext to scrap or weaken the 2015 deal and get rid of the limits the deal imposes on the US ability to pursue more hostile policies against Iran.
However, Washington’s European allies seek to prevent the collapse of the deal and are stepping up efforts to convince Trump not to abandon the accord.
