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WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: US President Donald Trump’s refusal to certify the Iran nuclear deal has sparked a new war of words between Tehran and the US.
In a televised speech shortly after Trump made his announcement, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his country would remain in the deal, but criticized Trump’s words, referring to them as “curses.”
Rouhani also said Iran would continue to build and test ballistic missiles, something allowed under the nuclear deal though Americans believe it violates the accord’s spirit.
The US has also levied new sanctions against Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, whose forces support embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad, have tense encounters with US warships in the Arabian Gulf and run the country’s ballistic missile program.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said he expects that US allies in Europe and the Middle East will be “very supportive” of President Trump’ action on Iran.
Tillerson said it is “in all of our interest” to work together to confront the threat posed by Iran. He said that Trump’s plan is “quite clear.”
The Senate’s top Democrat who opposed the Iran nuclear deal two years ago now says the accord is in the national security interests of the US.
Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is urging President Donald Trump to keep the seven-nation pact in place.
Trump said that if Congress did not come up with satisfactory changes to the Iran nuclear deal in a “very short” period of time then he was prepared to “terminate” it.
Trump told reporters following a White House speech that he was “very unhappy with Iran.” He said the country “has to behave much differently.”
Trump is not withdrawing from the deal but instead has asked Congress to come up with a fix. It is an approach that he defended.
The leaders of Britain, France and Germany said they “stand committed” to the Iran nuclear deal and are “concerned by the possible implications” of a US decision to no longer back it in its current form.
British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron issued a joint statement Friday night calling the deal “the culmination of 13 years of diplomacy” and “a major step toward ensuring that Iran’s nuclear program is not diverted for military purposes.”
The three leaders are urging the Trump administration and Congress to consider the possible consequences for the West’s security “before taking any steps that might undermine” the deal, including imposing sanctions on Iran that the agreement lifted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has congratulated US President Trump for his decision not to recertify to Congress the Iran nuclear deal.
In a statement released Friday, Netanyahu praised what he called a “courageous decision.” He said Trump has created an opportunity to “fix this bad deal” and to roll back Iran’s aggression.
The Israeli prime minister encouraged all other relevant nations to do the same. Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of the 2015 deal. He has long warned that it failed to address Iran’s support for militant groups who act against Israel. Iran is Israel’s archenemy and openly calls for its destruction.
There was no immediate reaction from China, though Alexei Pushkov, a pro-Kremlin lawmaker in the upper house of the Russian Parliament, said neither Moscow nor Beijing backed Trump’s stance.
“Russia, of course, does not support the US position, nor does China. So Trump will be left in proud isolation in an attempt to improve his image among his own supporters,” Pushkov told Russia’s state-run Rossiya-24 TV station.