Iran Does Not Take Trump’s Stance on JCPOA Seriously: AEOI’s Salehi
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi described US president-elect Donlad Trump’s stance on the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers as “negative”.
“(US president-elect Donald) Trump’s stance on the nuclear agreement is negative and we do not take it seriously”, Salehi said in an interview with Al Jazeera news network on Tuesday.
Stressing that Iran will not be the first party to violate the accord, he added, “If Trump tears up the nuclear deal, we will not lose anything.”
Washington should accept the responsibility of its actions if the deal is rejected, Salehi went on to add.
In similar remarks on Tuesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed as absurd the idea that the nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), can be renegotiated.
“(Holding) new negotiations (on the deal) is meaningless,” Rouhani said at a press conference in Tehran held on the first anniversary of the implementation of the nuclear agreement between Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).
He made the remarks in response to a question about Iran’s response to US President-elect Donald Trump who has threatened to either scrap the agreement or renegotiate it and seek a better deal.
Negotiations that led to the agreement took a long time, the Iranian president noted, adding that returning to the past will make no sense.
“There will be no (new) negotiations on the JCPOA,” he underscored, adding that the deal has been reached and is virtually an international document.
He also stressed that Trump’s remarks about the nuclear deal are just propaganda, adding that the next US president will not be able to abandon the deal unilaterally when he enters the White House.
Rouhani went on to say that he believes it is unlikely to happen as the JCPOA is not a bilateral agreement.