TEHRAN - Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior foreign policy advisor to the Leader, said on Wednesday that the U.S. is seeking to abrogate the nuclear deal but the world is standing against it.

“The Americans want to violate the JCPOA but the world is standing against them,” Velayati said, referring to the deal's formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The remarks by Velayati came as Nikki Haley, Washington’s ambassador to the UN, argued on Tuesday that Iran's technical compliance with the JCPOA alone isn't enough for the U.S. to stick with the pact. 

She said Iran's history, its hostility toward the U.S. have to figure into Donald Trump's calculus when he decides in October whether to certify if Iran is abiding by the deal. She argued both UN resolutions and U.S. law should be considered as well.

“What I am saying is should he decide to decertify, he has grounds to stand on," Haley said, according to CNN. “It's very easy to just talk about compliance and the JCPOA,” she said. “But there's so much more to the story that we need to be looking at,” she added.

Asked if the U.S. would end up isolated for leaving a deal that has buy in from China, Russia, Germany, France, the UK and the EU, Haley said Washington's job wasn't to make sure allies were “comfortable”.

“This is about U.S. national security, this is not about European security,” she said.

Haley's remarks drew a quick response from the French ambassador to the U.S., Gerard Araud, who tweeted a rebuke at the Trump administration's apparent attempt to move the goalposts on the Iran deal.

“The Iran deal is about the nuclear issue, nothing else,” Araud tweeted. “So far, Iran is abiding by the commitments taken in this mutually agreed framework.”

PA/PA