Top Security Official:

Iran Has Capacity to Defeat Trump’s Bullying

Date: 05 May 2018 - 21:24

News ID: ۵۲۵۸۷

TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran is determined to reject demands by U.S. President Donald Trump for changes to its nuclear accord, which amount to bullying, a senior Iranian security official said Saturday.
Trump has said that unless European allies rectify "flaws" in Tehran's 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers by May 12 he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief for Iran.
"This is an international agreement ... and we certainly have the capacity to defeat your bullying," Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said in remarks broadcast on state television.
"You are saying that you do not accept something that was set up under the last president and it should be changed," Shamkhani said, addressing Trump.
"Who, then, guarantees that if something is done with you, the next president won't come and refuse to accept it?"
Russian EU Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov said the nuclear deal has just "a few days to live”. He told Deutsche Welle that a U.S. withdrawal from the deal would be "dangerous".
French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday warned that the U.S. withdrawal from Iran's nuclear deal could lead to a war.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Macron pointed to Trump's threats to abandon the nuclear agreement and said, "That would mean opening Pandora's box, it could mean war."
"I do not believe that Donald Trump wants war," Macron added.
"My view — I do not know what your president will decide — is that he will get rid of this deal on his own, for domestic reasons,” the French president pointed out.
Shamkhani strongly ruled out the possibility of a war against the Islamic Republic given enemies' awareness of Iran's "political strength and its military and security preparedness".
"As the official in charge of the country's national security body, I am explicitly and confidently announcing that the possibility of a war is ruled out because of enemies' assessment of the Islamic Republic's political strength, its military and security preparedness in domestic and foreign aspects as well as their lack of determination, coherence and operational capability," Shamkhani added.