Page 48 - bne_Magazine_September_2017

48 I Eurasia bne September 2017
Negotiations about Iranian Nuclear Program - the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Other Officials of the P5+1 and Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Iran and EU in Lausanne. Photo: U.S. Department of State
Rouhani: Iran could exit nuclear deal within hours if US doesn’t let up
bne IntelliNews
President Hassan Rouhani has warned that Iran could quit the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers “within hours” if the Trump administration keeps tightening its unilateral sanctions screw. If Tehran abandoned the agreement, the Islamic Republic would return to its previous nuclear development programme, which would be at a more advanced stage than it was when it was withdrawn
in return for the curbing of multilat- eral sanctions, Rouhani cautioned.
Iran’s political establishment has grown increasingly irritated at Washington’s expansion of targeted sanctions against individuals and entities following the passing of a recent sanctions bill by the US Senate. News agencies reported Rouhani as telling the Iranian parlia- ment that he would prefer to stick with the nuclear deal, which he see as “a model of victory for peace and diplo-
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macy over war and unilateralism”, but that this was not the “only option”.
Again slating President Donald Trump, Rouhani, who at his August 5 inaugu- ration for a second term of office the
US president described as a “political novice“, added: “In recent months, the world has witnessed that the US, in addi- tion to its constant and repetitive break- ing of its promises in the JCPOA [the multilateral Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or nuclear deal as it is more commonly referred to], has ignored sev-
The Trump administration, the 68-year- old centrist pragmatist and cleric said, “must know that the defeat in the expe- rience of [the nuclear] sanctions dragged their former governments to the negotiating table and if they are willing to return to those experiences, Iran will definitely go back to a situation which is more advanced than at the time of nego- tiations in a short period, within hours.”
In her latest statement on the JCPOA, Washington’s UN envoy Nikki Haley said: “Iran cannot be allowed to use
“Iran could quit the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers “within hours”
eral other global agreements and shown its allies that the US is neither a good partner nor a reliable negotiating party.”
the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage. Iran, under no circum- stances, can ever be allowed to have