FM Zarif: “We’ll see if US prepared to live up to letter of deal, let alone spirit. So far, it has defied both.”


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Iran has hit back at the Trump Administration’s rhetoric that Tehran is the ““world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism”, raising questions about the future of the 2015 nuclear deal between the Islamic Republic and the 5+1 Powers.

The State Department found on Wednesday that Iran is complying with the nuclear agreement; however, with the Trump Administration looking for a way to apply more economic and diplomatic pressure on Tehran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action “completely ignored all of the other serious threats that Iran poses” and that it does not “achieve the objective” because it is “buying off a power who has nuclear ambitions; we buy them off for a short period of time and then someone has to deal with it later”.

Tillerson cited Iran’s ongoing tests of medium-range ballistic missiles. He said Iran was “undermining US interest in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon, and continuing to support attacks against Israel”, and he denounced the suppression of human rights inside the Islamic Republic.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif used Twitter for his response:

Worn-out US accusations can’t mask its admission of Iran’s compliance with the JCPOA, obligating the US to change course and fulfill its own commitments….

The Iran Deal is prudently confined to the nuclear issue, without entering other contentious issues, including nefarious activities of US Government.

Zarif renewed his challenge on Friday:

Zarif used his “highlighter” to point to a specific provision of the agreement, “Senior Government officials of the EU/EU+3 [Britain, France, Germany, US, Russia, and China] and Iran will make every effort to support implementation of this JCPOA including in their public statements….[They] will refrain from any policy specifically intended to directly and adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran.”

The US has maintained some sanctions on Iran, particularly affecting the banking and financial sectors, despite the implementation of the JCPOA. The restrictions have held back some European firms from concluding trade and investment deals with Tehran, and have limited Iran’s ability to finance projects such as the purchase of 180 passenger planes from Boeing and France’s Airbus.

Donald Trump repeated Tillerson’s line on Thursday that Iran was “not living up to the spirit” of the nuclear deal.

TOP PHOTO: Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (File)


Live Debates Reinstated in Presidential Election

Reversing a decision from earlier this week, the Election Campaign Monitoring Committee is permitting live debates for the May 19 Presidential election.

The Commission had said that debates would be pre-recorded. No reason was given, although speculation circulated of concerns that the conservative-hardline challenger to President Rouhani, Ebrahim Raisi, would not perform well.

President Rouhani’s advisors said they would appeal the decision, and both Raisi and the third leading candidate, Tehran Mayor Mohammad-Baqer Qalibaf, also said they supported the live debates.

Interior Ministry spokesman Seyyed Salman Samani said there will be certain conditions, which will be announced later, on the debates.

Live debates were introduced in Iran before the disputed 2009 Presidential election.