Amid reports that President Donald Trump is planning to decertify the Iran nuclear accord sometime this coming week, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday that any attempt to undermine the deal will earn the United States condemnation from « the entire world. »
« We have achieved benefits that are irreversible. Nobody can roll them back, neither Trump, nor 10 other Trumps, » Rouhani said in an address to students at Tehran University. « If the United States violates [the nuclear deal], the entire world will condemn America, not Iran. »
Right-wing hawks within and outside of the Trump administration have for months urged the president to scrap the accord, which he repeatedly slammed on the campaign trail.
Critics have argued that withdrawing from the deal would represent an embrace of « war over peace. »
« If one seeks war, Trump’s decision makes sense, » argued Trita Parsi, president of the National Iranian American Council. « Failure will lead to war. If he doesn’t want war, then killing the deal makes no sense. »
On Sunday, tensions between Iran and the U.S. appeared to escalate further ahead of Trump’s expected policy speech on Iran later this week.
Mohammad Ali Jafari, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, ripped Trump’s « stupid behavior » regarding the nuclear accord and issued a stark warning against any new sanctions.
« As we’ve announced in the past, if America’s new law for sanctions is passed, this country will have to move their regional bases outside the 2,000 km range of Iran’s missiles, » Jafari said.
Jafari also denounced reports that Trump is planning to designate the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a « terrorist group. »
Top photo | Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP)
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