Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave a robust defense of the nuclear deal. The president insists that Tehran is complying and accusing the U.S. of trying to rip up the agreement.
CGTN’s Nathan King reports from the United Nations in New York.
From the same podium where just 24 hours before the U.S. president called Iran a rogue nation and the two year old the nuclear deal with Tehran an embarrassment, Rouhani defended the deal and said it would be a ‘great pity’ if Washington pulled out of the agreement. A move, he said, that would carry repercussions.
“By violating its international commitments , the new US administration is only destroying its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it or accepting its word or promise.”, said Hassan Rouhani the Iranian President.
In a plain reference to US President Trump, Rouhani called him a ‘rogue newcomer’ to the world stage. Even before President Rouhani spoke, Trump told reporters that he’d already made a decision on the Iran nuclear deal.
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the deal would have to be amended if the U.S. stays in. The U.S. said it is worried that the current monitoring of Iran is not intrusive enough and that Iran could be free to develop nuclear weapons after some provisions in the agreement expire in ten years.
But the other 5 powers who crafted the deal continue to stand behind it and insist the deal will not be abandoned and cannot be amended.
“I expressed myself very clearly about this nuclear agreement with Iran, and according to me what we have to do is to keep the 2015 agreement because it was a good one with strong monitoring of the current situation,” said Emmanuel Macron the French President.