TEHRAN – Mohammad Ali Hosseini, the former Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, has said that a U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal will deepen its division with European countries.

In an interview with Fars news agency published on Sunday, Hosseini said the European countries consider the deal a great achievement for multilateral diplomacy and has prevented the U.S. from scrapping the agreement so far.

He also said U.S. President Donald Trump makes efforts to mobilize Europe for exerting pressure on Iran in non-nuclear areas.

The former diplomat said the Trump administration is firm to deprive Iran of the benefits of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

In a statement on January 12, Trump set a May deadline and gave Europeans only 120 days to agree to an overhaul of the nuclear agreement. He threatened if the text of the nuclear deal is not revised he would unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from it. 

Iran, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the U.S., UK, France, Russia, and China – Germany and the European Union struck the nuclear deal in July 2015. It went into effect in January 2016.  

NA/PA