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Iran’s foreign ministry declared Saturday that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers was final and Tehran will commit to no further obligations, comments that come less than a day after U.S. President Donald Trump issued an ultimatum to his European allies to “fix” the deal.
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After conflicting reports and speculations, Trump waived Friday economic sanctions against Iran as part of the binding nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The ministry’s statement said the move meant that Trump’s opposition to his predecessor's sponsored deal is not being accepted by the international community.
“The internal solidity of and international support for the agreement have blocked attempts by Mr. Trump, the Zionist regime [of Israel], and the ominous alliance of hard-line warmongers to terminate this agreement or make changes to it,” the ministry said according to Iranian PressTV.
The waiver was extended for 120 days but Trump said he was doing so “for the last time” calling on European leaders involved in the deal to negotiate new terms with Tehran in order to maintain the accord.
Trump's policy & today’s announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, maliciously violating its paras 26, 28 & 29. JCPOA is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance -just like Iran.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 12, 2018
"In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately," Trump threatened in a statement by the White House.
A decision to withhold a waiver would have effectively ended the deal between Iran, the U.S., China, France, Russia, Britain, Germany and the European Union. The other parties to the agreement would have been unlikely to join the United States in re-imposing sanctions.
Hailed by former President Barack Obama as key to stopping Iran from building a nuclear bomb, the deal lifted economic sanctions in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear program to peaceful purposes.
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In sharp contrast to Trump's view that the 2015 pact was "the worst deal ever negotiated", European leaders met with Iranian officials Thursday to reaffirm their commitment to the nuclear deal and stress that there was no alternative to it.
"We agree on this approach, we want to protect [the deal] against every possible decision that might undermine it," Germany's Sigmar Gabriel said alongside his French and British counterparts and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini after meeting Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
While Most countries around the world supported the Iran deal, U.S. main allies in the Middle East Israel and Saudi Arabia publicly opposed it and accused Obama of abandoning them in order to secure the deal with Iran. However, when Trump was elected, Riyadh and Tel Aviv found a new strong ally in their quest to discredit the deal and lobby the U.S. government against the Iranian government.
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