JCPOA Implementation Not to End Iran’s Distrust of US: President
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ruled out the idea that Saturday’s implementation of a nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, known as the JCPOA, would eliminate Iranians’ mistrust of the US.
Iran is not going to trust the United States for the JCPOA, the president said in a Sunday press conference in Tehran, which came following Saturday’s official implementation of the nuclear agreement.
“Iran’s people have seen breaches of commitment by the US in the past,” Rouhani said in response to a question about possible US violation of the JCPOA, adding, however, that there are mechanisms predicted in the JCPOA for confronting any violation of undertakings in implementation of the accord.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) on July 14, 2015 finalized the comprehensive 159-page deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Six months later, on January 16, 2016 Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union’s Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini announced in a joint statement that the implementation of the nuclear deal has officially been started.
With that, all nuclear-related anti-Iran sanctions were terminated.
But Iranian officials have underlined on various occasions that the finalization and implementation of the nuclear accord do not mean the United States’ decades-long hostility toward Iran has ended.
Elsewhere in the press conference, the Iranian chief executive criticized Saudi Arabia for its domestic and regional conduct, including its handling of the Mina disaster in which over 7000 Hajj pilgrims were killed in a crush of people, the airstrikes against Yemen that has so far killed thousands of Yemeni people, and the Riyadh government’s treatment of its own people.
Rouhani also described the recent execution of prominent Shiite cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr by Saudi Arabia as unacceptable.
He expressed the hope that Riyadh would change the wrong path it has taken.
Tensions ran high between Iran and Saudi Arabia in recent weeks mainly due to Riyadh’s execution of Sheikh Nimr, and a subsequent attack by outraged Iranian protesters on the Saudi embassy in Tehran, which resulted in the Arab country’s decision to sever its ties with the Islamic Republic.
On January 2, Saudi Arabia announced that it has executed Sheikh Nimr, among dozens of others. The execution ignited widespread international condemnation, from both political and religious figures.
The next day, furious demonstrators in the Iranian cities of Tehran and Mashhad stormed Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic buildings in protest at the execution of Sheikh Nimr.
Although Iranian officials criticized the embassy attack and police arrested dozens involved, Saudi Arabia cut off diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic.