TEHRAN - Behrooz Kamalvandi, spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on Thursday Iran will take counteraction if the 5+1 group violates the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Iran is ready for “scenarios” of returning to past situation and will take actions, if necessary, in a way that the “other side would be surprised”, he said.

He continued that Iran will make any efforts to protect its nuclear achievements.

Pointing to claims made by some U.S. presidential candidates about “tearing up” the nuclear deal, Kamalvandi stated that Iran is highly capable of taking counteraction and returning to past situation and “they will face many problems.”

In July 2015, Iran and the 5+1 group - the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany - finalized the text of the JCPOA and the deal went into effect in January 2016.

Last August, Republican candidate Donald Trump said it would be hard to “rip up” the deal, but if elected president he would “police that contract so tough they don’t have a chance”, Reuters reported.

Ted Cruz, a Republican presidential hopeful, told the Zionist lobby AIPAC in March that they would scrap the nuclear deal with Iran as they take office.

In a reference to the threats, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei highlighted on Wednesday, “We will not violate the JCPOA; however, if the other side violates it, as the U.S. presidential candidates are threatening to tear up the JCPOA, we will burn it.”

NA