TEHRAN – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday that Washington would send a bad message if it walked away from a 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, Reuters reported.

U.S. President Donald Trump said in October he would not certify that Tehran was complying with the deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JPCOA), and warned he might ultimately terminate it, accusing Iran of “not living up to the spirit” of the accord.

“If the United States drops out of this deal, it won’t be very credible in the eyes of those who are now requested to drop their (own) nuclear program like North Korea,” said Lavrov, addressing a Rome conference.

He added that most “serious analysts ... and many officials” in Washington understood this.

The Russian minister strongly condemned comments made by U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who earlier this week warned North Korea’s leadership it would be “utterly destroyed” if war were to break out after Pyongyang test-fired its most advanced missile.

“If someone really wants to use force to, as the U.S. representative to the United Nations put it, destroy North Korea ...then I think that is playing with fire and a big mistake,” the Russian foreign minister warned.

MH/PA