TEHRAN – A top Iranian diplomat said on Wednesday that U.S. President Donald Trump has “so far” honored his side of the international nuclear accord, one which he harshly berated as a presidential candidate.  

“So far, Trump has shown commitment to the nuclear deal,” ISNA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi as saying after a parliamentary briefing on the deal. 

“Other non-nuclear sanctions need to be suspended at the right time,” the top nuclear negotiator added, noting, “As a matter of fact, it was Trump’s first test.” 

Iran and six world powers, including the U.S., agreed in July 2015 to remove nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran in reward for it rolling back its nuclear program.  

During his presidential trail, Trump threatened to pull out of the accord, at one point branding it a “disastrous deal”, contrary to his predecessor Barack Obama who had hailed it a signature foreign policy achievement.  

Just two days before the May 19 elections in Iran, however, Trump extended the sanctions relief called for under the deal even as he imposed narrow penalties on two Iranian and Chinese figures for supporting Iran's ballistic missile program. 

"The United States continues to waive sanctions as required to continue implementing U.S. sanctions-lifting commitments in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action," the State Department said in a statement, referring to the deal by its formal name.

Earlier in April, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a letter to U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan, remarked that Iran had remained compliant with the deal yet he had urged launching an inter-agency review of whether the lifting of sanctions against Iran was in the United States' national security interests. 

It would not be clear, however, if the review will influence Trump’s next decision in nearly two months from now, when he is to waive a different set of sanctions for a six-month period, according to Araghchi. 

AK/PA