Iran sounds nuke deal warning

IRAN warned yesterday that it would quit a landmark nuclear deal with world powers if President Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the accord.

“If the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal, we will not stay in it,” Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said.

Trump has threatened to abandon the agreement when it comes up for renewal on Saturday next week, calling it insane. Iran has always denied it sought a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic programme was for civilian purposes.

Velayati warned against any move to try to renegotiate the deal signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015 curbing Teheran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

“Iran accepts the nuclear agreement as it has been prepared and will not accept adding or removing anything,” he said.

“Even if countries allied with the United States, especially the Europeans, seek to revise the nuclear agreement one of our options will be withdrawing from the accord.”

On Wednesday, White House officials said Trump had all but decided to withdraw from the accord, but exactly how he would do so remained unclear.

A decision by Trump to end US sanctions relief would all but sink the agreement and could trigger a backlash by Iran, which could resume its nuclear arms programme. –