Iran threatens retaliation against u.s. sanctions
President Donald Trump has warned European allies and Congress they HAD TO WORK WITH HIM TO fiX ‘THE DISASTROUS flAWS’ IN THE IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL.
DUBAI: Iran said on Saturday it would retaliate against sanctions imposed on its judiciary head by the United States as President Donald Trump stepped up efforts to ‘fix’ a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.
Trump said on Friday he would waive nuclear sanctions against Iran for the last time to give Washington and its European allies a chance to fix the “terrible flaws” of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Washington also announced sanctions against 14 entities and people, including the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani.
“The Trump regime’s hos- tile action (against Larijani)... crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community and is a violation of international law and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by state media.
On Friday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter on that Trump’s decision undermined the multilateral agreement.
Meanwhile Trump’s ultimatum puts pressure on Europeans—key backers and parties to the 2015 international agreement to curb Iran’s nuclear program – to satisfy Trump, who wants the pact strengthened with a separate agreement within 120 days.
“Despite my strong inclination, I have not yet withdrawn the United States from the Iran nuclear deal,” Trump said in a statement. “Instead, I have outlined two possible paths forward: either fix the deal’s disastrous flaws, or the United States will withdraw.” Trump laid out several conditions to keep the United States in the deal. Iran must allow “immediate inspections at all sites requested by international inspectors,” he said, and “sunset” provisions imposing limits on Iran’s nuclear program must not expire. Trump said US law must tie long-range missile and nuclear weapons programs together, making any missile testing by Iran subject to “severe sanctions.”
The president wants Congress to modify a law that re- views US participation in the nuclear deal to include “trigger points” that, if violated, would lead to the United States reimposing its sanctions, the official said.
This would not entail negotiations with Iran, the official said, but rather would be the result of talks between the United States and its European allies. Analyst Richard Nephew said whether Trump’s conditions could be met depended on whether he wants a face-saving way to live with the nuclear deal with the political cover of toughsounding US legislation, or whether he really wants the deal rewritten.
A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal between Iran, the United States, China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. The other parties to the agreement would have been unlikely to join the United States in reimposing sanctions.
Hailed by Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program but Trump has argued that Obama negotiated a bad deal.
Britain, France and Germany called on Trump on Thursday to uphold the pact.