Shamkhani: Iran Could Leave NPT

Rouhani: Leave JCPOA and Face ‘Severe Consequences’

Date: 24 April 2018 - 21:47

News ID: ۵۲۲۰۵

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday to stay in the nuclear deal Tehran signed with world powers in 2015, or face "severe consequences".
Trump has said that unless European allies fix what he has called "terrible flaws" in the deal by May 12, he will restore U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would be a severe blow to the pact.
The other powers that signed the deal - Russia, China, Germany, Britain and France - have all said they want to preserve the agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear program in return for lifting most sanctions.
"I am telling those in the White House that if they do not live up to their commitments, the Iranian government will firmly react," Rouhani said in a speech broadcast live on state television.
"If anyone betrays the deal, they should know that they would face severe consequences," he told a cheering crowd of thousands gathered in the city of Tabriz. "Iran is prepared for all possible situations," he added.
Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said Iran might withdraw from the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) if Trump scraps the nuclear deal.
In a news conference broadcast live on state television, Shamkhani told reporters here before departing for Russia that the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was ready for some "surprising actions" if the nuclear deal was scrapped.
Answering a question about the possibility of Tehran withdrawing from the NPT, Shamkhani said: "This is one of three options that we are considering."
Russia urged a United Nations nuclear disarmament forum to show its support for the "fragile" Iran nuclear accord by signing onto a statement, co-written by China, backing the deal.
The head of the arms control unit at Russia's foreign ministry, Vladimir Yermakov, called on UN members to not "keep silence in hope that the situation will somehow blow over."
Addressing the preliminary review meeting of the NPT, Yermakov described the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement as "quite a fragile compromise."
Trump is supposed to waive U.S. sanctions against Tehran by the May 12 deadline to keep the agreement alive but if he refuses to do so, it may unravel.
Russia and China, both supporters of the pact known as the Joint Comprehensive Action Plan (JCPOA), drafted a statement affirming their "unwavering support for the comprehensive and effective implementation" of the deal.
Yermakov urged all nations at the UN nuclear meet to sign on.
"We believe there is a demand for such a collective message by the (meeting) and hope that the document will find broad support," he said.
The Russian official then took a thinly veiled shot at Trump's call to renegotiate the JCPOA in hopes of securing tougher terms.
"Any attempts to amend (the) text for someone's benefit will inevitably... have powerful negative consequences for regional global stability and security," Yermakov said.
In his own speech to the forum, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Reza Najafi took on Trump directly, rejecting what he described as Washington's "ultimatum to certain JCPOA participants for one-sided alterations of the deal's provisions."
"Our response to that threat is clear and firm: No, the JCPOA will not be renegotiated or altered," Najafi said, echoing a stance adopted by Tehran after Trump first raised the prospects of re-visiting a pact negotiated by his predecessor Barack Obama.
The joint Russia-China text was introduced at the UN meeting after Moscow's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov vowed in Beijing Monday that China and Russia would block any attempts to "sabotage" the Iran nuclear agreement.
During a first day of discussions on the NPT in Geneva Monday, a long line of speakers had voiced their support for the Iran deal, including the UN's top representative for disarmament affairs Izumi Nakamitsu.
European leaders are also scrambling the save the deal.
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington this week lobbying Trump to preserve the pact, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel due in the U.S. capital Friday.
Iran's Foreign Minister Muhammad Javad Zarif said the U.S. under Trump has violated almost all of its commitments as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, and that Washington’s withdrawal would only set Iran free of any obligation to stay in the accord.
"If the United States officially withdraws from the JCPOA, the immediate implication would be that it would free Iran of any obligation to remain in the JCPOA,” Zarif told the National Interest on Monday.
He said the Trump administration "has really not been a part of the JCPOA, has violated almost every U.S. commitment under the JCPOA, so we’ve had almost sixteen months of a trial period for official withdrawal."
Zarif said quitting the NPT could be an option for Iran in case Trump scraps the accord.
"That’s not, certainly, the government’s position. But we have very active public opinion and we have always been responsive to public opinion. But what I see in the cards as the first stage of our response to U.S. official withdrawal would be to contemplate also withdrawing from the JCPOA,” he said.