President Hassan Rouhani Wednesday laid into the US and President Donald Trump’s pressing demand for a new nuclear deal with Iran noting that the Islamic Republic has remained loyal to the three-year old pact.
President Trump has warned to walk away from the 2015 nuclear deal signed between the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and Iran. The deal aims at curbing Iran’s uranium enrichment, which world powers, Israel, Saudi Arabia and its regional allies believe sets Iran on the path of acquiring an atomic bomb.
The US leader is due to decide on May 12 on the fate of the deal and threatened to rip it off if US allies do not propose a new pact that also brings under control Iran’s ballistic missile program and curbs its military influence in the Middle East.
In a speech Wednesday, President Rouhani questioned the legitimacy of the US demand in so far as other signatories have confirmed Iran’s consistence with the agreement.
“Together with a leader of a European country they say: ‘We want to decide on an agreement reached by seven parties.’ What for? With what right?” Rouhani said.
Already on Tuesday his foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that Iran would also withdraw from the deal and resume its uranium enrichment should the US pull out.
“If the United States were to withdraw from the nuclear deal, the immediate consequence in all likelihood would be that Iran would reciprocate and withdraw,” Zarif said.
“There won’t be any deal for Iran to stay in,” he added.
Wednesday, meanwhile, on the last day of his US trip, French President Emmanuel Macron in an address before the US Congress stated that his country remains loyal to the agreement but will push for amendments likely to suit the concerns of the Trump Administration.
Macron appeased the US politicians that France will never allow the Islamic Republic to possess nuclear weapons.
“Iran shall never possess any nuclear weapons. Not now. Not in five years. Not in 10 years. Never,” Macron said.
