Iran: Confronting U.S. Is Only Choice Left

TEL AVIV – Confronting the U.S. is the only choice Iran has left, Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani warned Wednesday.

The remarks came following legislation proposed by U.S. opponents to the Iran deal to further sanction the Islamic Republic, and the UN’s first bi-annual report, which said that Iran was not following the “spirit” of the nuclear agreement signed last year by continuing ballistic missile tests.

“Majlis (Iranian Parliament), utterly regretting the UN chief’s move, is warning the US administration and its House of Representatives and Senate that injurious measures against the nuclear agreement have reached such a point that there is no way left for Iran but to counteract,” the Jerusalem Post, citing Iran’s Press TV, quotes Larijani as stating.

Regarding the UN report, Larijani said, “On the one hand, the Secretary General says in his report that Iran’s commitment is encouraging, and on the other, he makes no reference to Iran’s concerns and complaints about the non-implementation of all of the P5+1’s obligations.”

Larijani charged the Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon of a one-sided approach, asking, “Had the Secretary General been tasked with producing a report on both sides’ fulfillment of their obligations or is he the P5+1’s monitor in this?”

Larijani argued that testing ballistic missiles is not prohibited in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) deal itself. He further countered that the treaty makes no mention of UN Security Council Resolution 2231.

According to Larijani, Iran was only instructed not to design ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

“Has Iran designed any such thing? Why would the UN chief then declare that the spirit of the JCPOA has been violated?” Press TV quoted Larijani as asking.

According to the report, Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi warned Wednesday that if the U.S.-led JCPOA continues to disrespect the deal, Iran will resume uranium enrichment to a greater extent than it did before the treaty.

“We can go to better conditions compared with the past as quickly as possible,” Salehi was quoted as saying by Iran’s Fars News Agency.

“Of course, this will happen if the other side violates the nuclear deal and this violation will be confirmed by the board (in Iran) which supervises (implementation of) the nuclear deal.” he added.