Iran hints it may escalate nuclear plans
U.S. pullout from agreement prompts reaction by Tehran
Iran’s supreme leader hints that his country might step up its nuclear program, signaling a possible escalation in its volatile relationship with U.S.
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader Wednesday hinted that his country might step up its nuclear program, signaling a possible escalation in an already volatile relationship with Washington after President Donald Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the 2015 nuclear deal.
Trump said Tuesday that the United States would leave the agreement, under which Iran agreed to strict limits for 15 years on its development of nuclear fuel. The deal was intended to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, in return for an easing of economic sanctions. But now, Trump said, the United States will reimpose sanctions.
Iran has always insisted that its uranium enrichment was intended only to operate nuclear power plants and conduct research, but it also put Iran closer to producing fuel that could be used in atomic bombs.
“Last night, you heard the president of America making petty and mindless statements,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, told a group of teachers in his Tehran office, according to the semiofficial news agency Fars. “There were perhaps more than 10 lies in his statements.”
“He threatened both the system and the nation that ‘I will do this and that,’” Khamenei said. “I say on behalf of the nation of Iran: ‘Mr. Trump, you won’t do a damn thing!’”
The other parties to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union — continue to support it. Western intelligence agencies say that Tehran has long had an eye toward — and at times has actively pursued — nuclear weapons.
Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a statement Wednesday that Iran was “subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime” and that his nuclear watchdog agency “can confirm that the nuclear-related commitments are being implemented by Iran.”
It was Khamenei who ultimately approved the compromises made in the nuclear agreement in 2015, though he also warned at the time against trusting the Americans.
President Hassan Rouhani of Iran said Tuesday that his country would continue to abide by the agreement, but Khamenei, the spiritual leader for the past 29 years, wields the ultimate power in the nation. On Wednesday, Khamenei seemed to suggest that Iran had given up too much and needed a nuclear program.
Reacting to reports that Trump wants to force “regime change” in Iran, Khamenei said, “wait for the day when Trump is dead, his corpse is fed on by snakes and insects, but the system of the Islamic Republic will still be standing.”
Iranian officials involved in nuclear negotiations say the focus will now be on how European parties to the deal react to Trump’s announcement. The sanctions that the U.S. president promised to revive actively discourage and punish European companies and Asian buyers of oil that do business with Iran.
Iranian military commanders welcomed Trump’s decision, the semiofficial news agency ISNA reported.
“Iranian people never favored the nuclear deal,” the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, was quoted as saying.
Iran already faces a severe economic crisis, with high unemployment, drought and a weakening currency.
But Iranian hard-liners expressed joy at Trump’s decision.
“Now all Iranians blame the United States for their troubles,” said Hamidreza Taraghi, a hard-line political analyst.