The chief of Iran’s nuclear agency has sent a stark warning to the United States on Tuesday against undermining the 2015 nuclear accord, saying international nonproliferation efforts as well as Washington’s international standing would suffer as a result.
At an international conference on enhancing nuclear safety Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi stated that Washington’s recent “delusionary negative postures do not augur well” for keeping the deal intact.
He said Iran didn’t want to see the deal unravel but that “much more is at stake for the entire international community than the national interests of Iran.”
U.S. President Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech on Iran this week in which he is expected to decline to certify Iran’s compliance in the landmark 2015 agreement, referring it to Congress, and perhaps targeting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with new sanctions.
Salehi praised the progress that had been made since the 2015 deal, saying nonproliferation and disarmament efforts had benefited worldwide. He called it “simply too precious to be allowed to be undermined or weakened.”
“The failure of the nuclear deal will undermine the political credibility and international stature of the U.S. in this tumultuous political environment,” Salhehi warned.
He concluded that he hoped “common sense shall prevail.”
The U.S. administration has faced two 90-day certification deadlines to state whether Iran is meeting the conditions needed to continue enjoying sanctions relief under the deal and has both times backed away from a showdown. But Trump more recently has said he does not expect to certify Iran’s compliance with the October deadline looming.