A senior Iranian official has warned the US against violating last year’s nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group of countries, saying any failure by Washington to abide by its commitments under the deal will cost it dearly.
“If [US President-elect Donald] Trump scraps the agreement, it will cost US dearly,” Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi, a top military adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said in an interview with IRIB on Tuesday night.
He said the US foreign policy vis-a-vis Iran would not change with the election of a new president, adding that Washington would continue to harbor animosity towards Tehran like before.
It remains to be seen what policies would be pursued by the next US president now that the US administration and Congress are all controlled by the Republicans, Safavi said.
“The Republicans maintained a tradition of [adopting] radical stances against Iran, and have a lobby to get close to the Zionist regime and some of our neighboring countries, therefore, hostility against Iran will continue,” Safavi said.
Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the US, France, Britain, China and Russia – plus Germany started to implement the Iranian nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on January 16.
Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions against the country.
Trump said during his election campaign that he would “dismantle”, “tear up” or try to renegotiate the terms of the nuclear deal if elected president.
Iranian officials have warned the US against walking away from the nuclear agreement, stressing that any US president is bound to honor the deal as it has been endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution, which makes it effectively an international law.