Iran warns world to prepare for possible US JCPOA withdrawal
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said the US tried to destroy the nuclear deal last year and may destroy it in the coming days, warning the world to prepare for a possible US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“It’s been more than a year that the US president has sought to destroy the JCPOA with all his efforts,” said Araqchi, speaking at the Tehran Security Conference.
“We in Iran are prepared for any scenario. The international community and our region will be the biggest loser, since a successful experience in the international arena will be lost,” he added.
“Our region will not become a safer region without the JCPOA.”
Iran signed the accord in 2015 with six world powers, agreeing to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of many international sanctions.
US President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from the deal – a central foreign policy achievement of his predecessor Barack Obama – but has so far continued to waive the nuclear-related sanctions at regular intervals as required to stay in compliance.
The next deadline for Trump to waive sanctions falls on Friday.
Araqchi said that the JCPOA was a successful experience, adding that it is the only experience of peacefully solving a 10-year crisis through negotiations.
“If the Europeans are interested in keeping the JCPOA, they should take some special steps to encourage the European companies and banks to cooperate with Iran,” Araqchi stressed.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Monday that a withdrawal by the US will lead to an “appropriate and heavy response.”
“The US administration will definitely regret it,” he said.
Cooperation with IAEA
Iran’s nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, in a telephone conversation with the Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano, said Tehran might reconsider its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog if the US failed to respect its commitments in the nuclear deal, IRNA reported.
“If the United States does not meet its commitment in the JCPOA, the Islamic Republic of Iran would take decisions that might affect its current cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Salehi said.