Iran accepts no conditions imposed on nuclear agreement: Velayati

EghtesadOnline: A senior Iranian official says the Islamic Republic will not accept European countries’ call for the attachment of conditions to the historic nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries more than two years ago.

News ID: ۷۷۹۹۳۵

23 October 2017

“Saying that they [the Europeans] endorse the JCPOA (nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) but should negotiate on regional issues and Iran's missile program is make the JCPOA conditional, and this is not acceptable to us at all,” Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, told reporters on Tuesday.

“The JCPOA has no condition and must be upheld according to what has been agreed by Iran and the P5+1 countries,” PressTV quoted him as saying.

The senior Iranian official urged European parties to the nuclear deal to exercise more care in their remarks.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that his country would remain committed to the JCPOA, despite US President Donald Trump’s decision not to certify it.

In a telephone conversation with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the French leader, however, added that it was also necessary to have a dialogue with Iran on other strategic issues including Tehran’s ballistic missile program and stability in the region, the Elysee presidential office said.

Macron also spoke to Rouhani of his “wish to work with Iran for a lasting political solution to the Syrian crisis.”

The US president on October 13 refused to formally certify that Iran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal and warned that he might ultimately terminate the agreement.

While Trump did not pull Washington out of the JCPOA, he gave the US Congress 60 days to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions against Tehran that were lifted under the pact. Reimposing sanctions would put the US at odds with other signatories to the accord and the European Union.

European Union foreign ministers on Monday reaffirmed their support for the historic nuclear agreement, saying the accord is working and is a key part of non-proliferation efforts.

The top EU diplomats urged US lawmakers not to reimpose sanctions on Tehran and warned against the serious consequences for regional peace of a failure to maintain the international agreement backed by the UN Security Council.

Further in his remarks, Velayati pointed to Iran’s stance on the US move to impose new sanctions on the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) and said the US president and Congress have so far failed to observe the JCPOA.

“They are playing a political game,” the Leader’s aide pointed out.

He described the IRGC as the symbol of the Iranian nation’s resistance and said, “Any foreign official who speak against the IRGC, has in fact spoken against the Iranian people.”

In his latest anti-Iran speech, Trump announced sanctions on the IRGC, which he accused of destabilizing the Middle East and threatening American interests in the region.

“I am authorizing the Treasury Department to further sanction the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for its support for terrorism and to apply sanctions to its officials, agents and affiliates," Trump said.

Following Trump’s announcement, the US Treasury added the IRGC to its anti-terrorism sanctions list, claiming in a statement that the elite military force is “providing support to a number of terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as to the Taliban."

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday slammed the US Treasury Department’s move against the IRGC, saying Iranian people from all walks of life strongly support the defenders of the country and the region against terrorism.

“Today, Iranians – boys, girls, men, women – are ALL IRGC,” Zarif said on his official Twitter account.

Zarif added that the Iranian people are “standing firm with those who defend us & the region against aggression & terror.”