Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Secretary says the United States plans to pull out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) or Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
“The U.S. wants to withdraw from the deal at the expense of Iran, but the Islamic Republic will not give it the opportunity to do so,” Secretary Ali Shamkhani said on August 2. “The nuclear deal has had no effect in reducing Washington’s hostility toward Iran since the nature of U.S. foreign policy is leveraging and exerting pressure to humiliate its opponents, and, ultimately, forcing them to submit.”
Unconfirmed reports have circulated recently indicating that President Donald Trump has ordered the White House staff to file a report on JCPOA and prove that Tehran is violating its spirit.
During his electoral campaign, Trump repeatedly expressed his dissatisfaction with JCPOA and even vowed he would tear it up should he win.
Ali Shamkhani carries the rank of a Rear Admiral. He is the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.
However, since entering the White House, he has twice re-certified that Iran is abiding by its end of the bargain. Apparently, others in the administration have raised voices of caution.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson indicated on August 1, that he and president Trump have differences on the issue.
Tillerson said that Washington could "tear it up and walk away" or stay in the deal and hold Iran accountable to its terms, which he said would require Iran to act as a "good neighbor."
But Shamkhani is saying, “Iran is not willing to keep JCPOA at any cost, for JCPOA is valid only if all parties continue to respect it and fulfill their commitments” .
He also claimed that the signatories of JCPOA are practically against the United States’ approach and, either explicitly or implicitly, accuse Washington of violating the spirit of the deal.
Earlier, EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Federica Mogherini had reiterated that JCPOA does not belong to one single country and Washington should understand that the EU and UN have approved and signed the deal.
Regarding the new bill U.S. Congress recently approved and president Trump signed to impose new sanctions on Tehran, Shamkhani, who is also a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), noted, “The Iranian committee monitoring JCPOA implementation has formulated a set of measures in the “legal, technical, nuclear, economic, political, defense, and military domains” to respond to the new sanctions,” local media reported.
U.S. Congress insists the new sanctions imposed on Iran are related to Iran’s illegal testing of ballistic missiles and have nothing to do with JCPOA.
JCPOA is an international agreement on Iran’s nuclear program signed in Vienna in 2015 between Iran, the P5+1 (China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, plus Germany), and the European Union.
Based on the agreement, Iran gave up all its “suspicious” nuclear activities in exchange for lifting or suspending international sanctions imposed on the country for the same puprose.
The deal was implemented a year after its ratification.