Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has reacted to news that President Donald Trump’s administration intended to sell sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Zarif has said, “Day by day it becomes clearer to the world what was always clear to us: neither human rights nor a nuclear program have been the real concern of the U.S. First a dismembered journalist; now illicit sale of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia fully expose”.
The United States pulled out of the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran last May, arguing that it cannot prevent Tehran from eventual development of nuclear weapons.
On Tuesday February 19 U.S. lawmakers said they were investigating whether the Trump administration has tried to rush through a deal to sell sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia without following the necessary procedures or obtaining needed safeguards from the Saudis.
An initial report by the House Committee on Oversight said that "strong private commercial interests have been pressing aggressively" to transfer sensitive technology to Saudi Arabia.
After last November’s Congressional elections, the opposition Democrats now control the House of Representatives and its committees.
Iran might use the news about the alleged nuclear sale plan to argue with Europeans that proliferation concerns by Washington are not justified when the U.S. wants to transfer technology to Tehran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia without due consideration and all the safeguards.