Iran: Nuclear Program Can be Reactivated in Hours, Rouhani Warns

Iran has warned that it will quit the 2015 nuclear deal and reactivate its controversial nuclear program if the US continues to target it with sanctions.

“If America wants to go back to the experience [of imposing sanctions], Iran would certainly return in a short time – not a week or a month but within hours – to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations,” President Rouhani told the Iranian parliament on Tuesday.

Under the deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, Iran halts its nuclear program while the West lifts gradually the economic sanctions.

Washington has been unilaterally imposing sanctions on Iran claiming that it is not related to the nuclear program but to “its missile launches, support for terrorism, disregard for human rights, and violations of UN Security Council resolutions,” according to the US Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Haley.

President Rouhani accused the new administration at the White House of turning its back to commitments made by Washington on the international stage. “The world has clearly seen that under Trump, America has ignored international agreements and, in addition to undermining the (nuclear deal), has broken its word on the Paris agreement and the Cuba accord … and that the United States is not a good partner or a reliable negotiator,” he observed.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres wants the nuclear agreement to be upheld, describing it as “one of the utmost diplomatic achievements in our collective search for peace and security,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.