Nuclear deal stands – Rouhani
NEW YORK: The international nuclear agreement with Iran is a “closed issue” and cannot be extended or changed in any way, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has declared, flatly rejecting US President Donald Trump’s criticism that the deal is weak and “an embarrassment”.
“This is a building frame. If you take out a single brick, the entire building will collapse,” Rouhani said.
“This issue must be understood by the American officials,” he added. “Either the JCPOA will remain as it is in its entirety or it will cease to exist.”
The 2015 deal known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was a signature achievement for President Barack Obama. The agreement, negotiated over more than two years of difficult diplomacy, also involves European allies, as well as Russia and China, and is backed by the UN.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson held his first meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday, alongside the other parties to the accord.
France, Germany and Britain have not signed on to the criticism lodged by the new US administration, and French President Emmanuel Macron used his meeting at the UN with Trump on Monday to urge the US leader to stick with it.
The agreement meant an infusion of cash and investment in Iran, much of it from European businesses liberated from international economic sanctions on Iran.
It has been an open question whether the agreement could survive without the US, whose participation was the key to Iranian willingness to strike a bargain, limiting what it asserts is a peaceful nuclear programme.
Rouhani’s remarks are a declaration that the deal cannot be renegotiated to address US concerns and cannot be reconstituted without the US. Rouhani also suggested that if the US abrogates the terms of the deal, Iran could resume larger-scale uranium-enrichment activities – a move likely to rekindle international fears that Tehran would be able to accelerate the development of nuclear weapons.
“If anyone exits the agreement and breaks their commitment, it means our hand is completely open to take any action we see as beneficial to our country,” Rouhani said at a news conference after his address to the UN General Assembly.
“The JCPOA has no other conditions,” Rouhani said. “It is the JCPOA in its current form.”
Tillerson said he was not discouraged by Rouhani’s refusal to consider any kind of modification of the deal.
“As a longtime negotiator, I learnt to never say never,” he said. “And second, it always gets the darkest before you might have a breakthrough. As I’ve said to people many times, as the nation’s chief diplomat, I better be the most optimistic person in the room.”
Tillerson said the meeting between diplomats whose countries signed the nuclear deal was civil and matter of fact, even though he and Zarif clearly differed in their assessment of the agreement.
“There was no yelling,” he said. “We did not throw shoes at each other.”
Trump said on Wednesday that he had decided what to do about the Iran deal, which he has strongly and repeatedly criticised, but he did not say what that decision was.
Responding to a question about whether a decision had been made about the future of the accord, Trump repeated: “I have decided.” Pressed to reveal his decision, Trump said: “I’ll let you know what the decision is.”