Tehran warns US on N-deal ‘compliance’
Tillerson declares JCPOA a failure
BEIRUT, April 20, (Agencies): Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday the United States should meet its own obligations agreed in a landmark nuclear deal in 2015 rather than making accusations against the Islamic Republic.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Wednesday accused Iran of “alarming ongoing provocations” to destabilise countries in the Middle East as the Trump administration launched a review of its policy towards Tehran that will include the 2015 nuclear deal.
In a letter to House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, the top Republican in Congress, Tillerson said on Tuesday that Iran remained compliant with the nuclear accord, but there were concerns about its role as a state sponsor of terrorism.
In the first reaction to Tillerson’s remarks from a senior Iranian official, Zarif tweeted that the United States should “fulfill its own commitments”.
Under the nuclear deal, the State Department must notify Congress every 90 days on Iran’s compliance under the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It was the first such notification under US President Donald Trump.
In his tweet, Zarif also addressed Tillerson’s terrorism charge: “Wornout US accusations can’t mask its admission of Iran’s compliance w/ JCPOA.”
Iran helped to create and continues to fund Hezbollah, the Lebanese military and political organization which the United States has listed as a terrorist organization.
Both Iran and Hezbollah are currently fighting in support of Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s forces.
Iran has also sent military advisers and fighters to neighbouring Iraq, where they are taking part in the Baghdad government’s operations against Islamic State.
Iranian hardliners have regularly
criticized Zarif and President Hassan Rouhani for their role in negotiating the 2015 nuclear deal, which they see as capitulation to Western powers.
During his presidential campaign, Trump called the nuclear agreement “the worst deal ever negotiated”, raising questions over whether he would rip it up once he took office.
The historic deal between Iran and six major powers restricts Tehran’s nuclear programme in exchange for the lifting of international oil and financial sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The Trump administration’s interagency review of policy towards Iran will examine whether the lifting of sanctions against Tehran is in the US national security interests.
Tillerson declared the Iran nuclear deal a failure on Wednesday but left open the possibility the Trump administration will uphold it nonetheless.
The top American diplomat sought to reinforce the notion that the US is aggressively countering Iran’s destabilizing behavior throughout the Middle East, even though Trump so far has not pulled out of the deal. Tillerson spoke a day after certifying to Congress that
Iran is complying with its obligations under the 2015 deal, a requirement for Tehran to continue receiving relief from nuclear sanctions.
“The JCPOA fails to achieve the objective of a non-nuclear Iran,” Tillerson said, using an acronym for the 2015 nuclear deal. “It only delays their goal of becoming a nuclear state.”
He said the deal, brokered by former President Barack Obama’s administration along with other world powers, represented the “same failed approach” the US has taken to North Korea. Like with the North, Tillerson said, the Trump administration was unwilling to be patient with Iran, ticking through a list of countries where he said Iran was supporting terrorism and violence.
Tillerson’s hastily arranged statement before cameras at the State Department reflected the competing forces pulling at the Trump administration as it develops its policy toward Iran. On the one hand, Trump wants to show he’s being tougher than Obama toward Iran, but on the other hand, he’s not yet ready to rip up the deal.
Trump as a candidate vowed to discard
or renegotiate the pact, and shortly after taking office his administration put Tehran “on notice” that its troublesome behavior would no longer be tolerated. But neither Iran nor the other world powers that negotiated the agreement have any interest in re-opening the deal, and US companies stand to lose billions if the deal is scuttled.