TEHRAN, February 11 - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned that the US would make a "big strategic mistake" if withdraws from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with P5+1 countries.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club (YJC) - The world would see that Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), would be the "US’ biggest folly in its political relations with the world and particularly with our region," he said, Speaking during a meeting with a group of ambassadors and heads of foreign organizations in Tehran on Saturday.
Rouhani noted that Iran has never refused to comply with its commitments to the JCPOA and expressed hope the nuclear deal would remain solid and turn into an appropriate model for settling regional and international matters.
Rouhani continued that Iran would not be the first to violate the deal, adding it has appropriate plans in case the US quits the deal.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly described the JCPOA, which was negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, as “the worst and most one-sided transaction Washington has ever entered into,” a characterization he often used during his presidential campaign, and threatened to tear it up.
The American head of state has repeatedly claimed that Iran’s missile program is in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the JCPOA.
Trump has also complained that the JCPOA-related restrictions have an expiration date and that underscores the need to toughen the "embarrassing" deal.