Iran says will quit nuclear deal if US walks away

TEHRAN

Iran warned yesterday that it will quit a landmark nuclear deal with world powers if President Donald Trump pulls the United States out of the accord.

“If the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal, then we will not stay in it,” Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said.

Trump has threatened to abandon the agreement when it comes up for renewal on May 12, calling it “insane.”

Iran has always denied it sought a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic program was for civilian purposes. Velayati warned against any move to try to renegotiate the deal signed by Iran and six world powers in 2015.

“Iran accepts the nuclear agreement as it has been prepared and will not accept adding or removing anything,” he said.

“Even if countries allied with the United States, especially the Europeans, seek to revise the nuclear agreement... one of our options will be withdrawing from the accord,” Velayati added.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister said Mohammad Javad Zarif said on May 3 that demands to change the deal were unacceptable.

“Iran will not renegotiate what was agreed years ago and has been implemented,” Zarif said in a video message posted on YouTube.

European signatories of the deal have been trying to persuade Trump to save the pact. They argue that Iran has been abiding by its terms, a position also taken by U.S. intelligence assessments.

“Let me make it clear absolutely and once for all: we will neither outsource our security, nor will we renegotiate or add on to a deal we have already implemented in good faith,” Zarif said.

French President Emmanuel Macron on May 2 reiterated his commitment to the accord but admitted that it needed strengthening.

“I don’t know what the U.S. president will decide on May 12,” Macron said during a visit to Sydney.

“I just want to say whatever the decision will be, we will have to prepare such a broader negotiation and a broader deal, because I think nobody wants a war in the region, and nobody wants an escalation in terms of tension in the region,” he said.