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Iran will not renegotiate nuclear deal: foreign minister
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif attends a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow, Russia, April 28, 2018. PHOTO BY REUTERS/Grigory Dukor
03/05/2018
ANKARA (Reuters) - Iran’s foreign minister said on Thursday that demands by U.S President Donald Trump to change Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers were unacceptable, as a deadline set by U.S. for Europeans to "fix" the deal loomed.
Trump has said that unless European allies fix the “terrible flaws” in the Iran nuclear deal by May 12, he will refuse to extend U.S. sanctions relief for oil-producing Iran.
"Iran will not renegotiate what was agreed years ago and has been implemented," Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a video message posted on YouTube.
European signatories of the deal have been trying to persuade Trump to save the pact. They argue that Iran has been abiding by its terms, a position also taken by U.S. intelligence assessments.
"Let me make it clear absolutely and once for all: we will neither outsource our security, nor will we renegotiate or add on to a deal we have already implemented in good faith," Zarif said.
Trump has described the accord, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear activities in return for the lifting of economic sanctions, as the worst deal ever negotiated.
Zarif, speaking in English in the Youtube video, said the United States had "consistently violated the nuclear deal, particularly by bullying others to prevent businesses to return to Iran".
(Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky and Peter Graff)
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