FM rejects re-negotiation of nuclear deal terms
Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran has dismissed any re-negotiations of the 2015 nuclear deal with six world powers, including the US, saying Washington is merely after getting more Iranian concessions under the accord with no new concessions from itself or other signatories in return.
According to Press TV, in an interview with The New York Times on Thursday, Mohammad Javad Zarif said US wants to change the deal at Iran’s expense alone, while Washington itself is not willing to make any concessions.
The top Iranian diplomat further said that kind of position contradicted the premise of any negotiated deal. If the nuclear accord is supposed to change, then every concession Iran has made to help make the deal happen has to be reconsidered, he noted.
“Why should we discuss an addendum?,” he asked. “If you want to have an addendum, there has to be an addendum on everything.”
“Are you prepared to return to us 10 tons of enriched uranium?,” Zarif also asked, referring to the stockpile, which was shipped to Russia as part of the deal.
A day earlier, Zarif had met with counterparts from the six other signatories to the deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States — on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly meetings in New York.
“Everybody, with one exception, said this is a good deal,” referring to his American opposite number Rex Tillerson’s position at the gathering.
Zarif also slammed as “absurd” US President Donald Trump’s anti-Iran speech at the UN, in which he called the nuclear accord a one-sided embarrassment to the United States that he may abandon.
The Iranian foreign minister said the Trump administration was “seriously ill-informed” about the limits placed on Iran’s nuclear program under the agreement.
Zarif that if the United States walked away from the accord as Trump threatened, “Who would come and listen to you anymore?” With such a threat, “The United States is sending the wrong signal,” he added.
SS
