A senior Iranian official warned Wednesday that “all options are on the table” for Iran if President Donald Trump chooses not to certify the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran on Friday.
President Trump must certify that Iran is complying with the deal by that deadline to keep it viable.
President Hassan Rouhani’s deputy chief of staff for political affairs Majid Takht-Ravanchi also warned the United States that the rogue nation had put together a contingency plan in the event that President Trump did not certify the deal and attempted to end it, one which would allegedly “surprise” Washington.
“The US will definitely regret exiting the JCPOA, and will incur much more losses than Iran, the official warned, saying Washington would wonder what a detailed plan Iran has made,” Takht-Ravanchi reportedly told Iran’s state-run IRNA, according to Iran’s Tasnim news agency. Tehran is reportedly ready to “adopt the necessary political and economic measures in case the US scraps the nuclear deal.”
“While stressing that all options are on the table if Washington withdraws from the 2015 nuclear deal, Tehran maintains that it will not be the first side to violate the JCPOA,” Tasnim notes. The official name of the nuclear deal is the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Iran’s Mehr news quotes Takht-Ravanchi as stating that America will be “surprised at Iran’s swift reaction” if they terminate the deal. He said, “if the United States quits, the Europeans can compensate for our losses, and we will enter a new space.”
The European Union has strongly supported the nuclear deal. This month, as protests within the country against its repressive Islamist regime escalated, European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini told reporters that the EU had been “in touch with the Iranian authorities” and trusted the regime would allow freedom of expression. Instead, the regime has arrested over one thousand people for peacefully objecting to its policies and killed at least 22.
Takht-Ravanchi appears to have been echoing the party line of Khamenei’s regime by insisting that some form of the deal will continue to exist with or without the United States, as Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif reportedly expressed similar sentiments while arriving in Moscow on Wednesday. He suggested that the European Union should pressure the United States into keeping the deal, despite evidence that Iran continues to violate it.
“Almost all countries whose envoys addressed the meeting underlined the implementation of JCPOA and the necessity of keeping it. This shows a consensus in the international community,” Zarif said. “This global consensus must be translated into action … the international community needs to stand against any anti-JCPOA move by the US if it wants to maintain the nuclear deal.”
“If the international community is interested in the continued implementation of JCPOA, it must stand against any measure by the US against the nuclear deal,” he added.
Zarif referred to Trump’s policies as “unpredictable,” turning the United States into an “unreliable” ally. On Tuesday, Khamenei referred to the president as simply “psychotic.”
“This man who sits at the head of the White House – although, he seems to be a very unstable man – he must realize that these extreme and psychotic episodes won’t be left without a response,” Khamenei said on Twitter. Khamenei has blamed Trump, along with Israel, the Iraqi Kurds, and Iranian dissidents, for widespread protests in Iran this month. He has not provided any evidence for his claims.
It remains unclear whether Trump will recertify the deal, though the Associated Press reported Wednesday that Trump appears to be leaning towards not just recertifying the deal, but extending sanctions relief that Iran received as part of the JCPOA.
Trump has until Friday to sign a waiver on these sanctions that extends the nuclear deal terms periodically. The White House has said in a statement that Trump has yet to decide on how to act.
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