TEHRAN – Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari has said that the unilateral withdrawal of the U.S. from the 2015 nuclear deal is a “sheer stupidity”.

In an interview with IRNA published on Wednesday, Jaafari said that the U.S. has been discredited by quitting the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Calling the U.S. decision as “wrong”, the chief Iraqi diplomat said, “I hope that Washington would review its position and make up for its mistake.” 

U.S. President Donald Trump officially withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear pact on May 9 and said he will reinstate economic sanctions on Iran.

Trump has come under international criticism by world leaders and international organizations for leaving the agreement. His decision has been called by some analysts as the “most stupid” decision being taken ever.  

The JCPOA was signed in July 2015 between Iran, the European Union, Germany and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council including the U.S.

Since Trump announced his decision, Iran has threatened if the other members of the agreement, especially Europeans, do not give “guarantees” to Tehran about the benefits of the agreement it will remove cap on its nuclear activities.

Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel has been a fierce critic of Trump for walking out of the international nuclear agreement.
“If we always say that something doesn’t suit us, and we don’t get a new international order, and everybody simply does what they want — then that’s bad news for the world,” she said.

Others in Merkel’s government have suggested there is little basis for trust in any future talks with the United States. Deputy Foreign Minister Niels Annen recently told the German magazine Der Spiegel that the administration had shown “very little willingness to take the arguments of its allies seriously.”

Trump is similarly unpopular in France, and President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Washington — during which the two leaders exchanged a number of physical touches — was roasted in the French press, with Macron portrayed as an obedient child

NA/PA