Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said the country will remain in the 2015 nuclear deal only if its benefits are guaranteed by other signatories following the exit of United States from the accord, Reuters reported.
Rouhani said the US’ withdrawal from the deal was “illegal”. “Not the United States, not any other country would benefit from this decision to withdraw from the accord,” Rouhani said at a press conference in Austria’s Vienna.
In May, US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed by the five permanent members of the United Nations, Germany, the European Union and Iran during former US president Barack Obama’s tenure. The agreement lifted decades-old sanctions on Tehran on the promise that it would roll back its nuclear programme considerably.
“After the JCPOA [nuclear deal], we showed very clearly that whatever promise we make, we stand by,” Rouhani said, according to Al Jazeera.
“The Americans claim that they want to break off the bridges connecting Iran with the world, but they will never reach that goal,” Rouhani said on Tuesday, according to Tehran-based PressTV. “They are not the world’s absolute power.” The United Nations Security Council and the European Union as well as a majority of other nations are on Iran’s side, he claimed.
“At the current historical juncture, the new US rulers consider themselves as being superior not only to Iran, but also to our entire region, Muslims and, essentially, all non-Americans,” Rouhani said.
Iran’s foreign minister will meet representatives of five world powers In Vienna on Friday to discuss the future of the nuclear deal after the US’s exit.
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