TEHRAN – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that the U.S. will suffer “historic remorse” if Donald Trump’s administration quits the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The warning by Rouhani came just a week before Trump decides to either stay in the multilateral accord or leave it.

Iran has threatened to resume its nuclear activities with a speed higher prior to the conclusion of the nuclear agreement if the nuclear agreement is ditched.

“I tell the Iranian people very clearly that the necessary directives have been given to the country’s executive sectors since several months ago. Necessary directives have been given to the Atomic Energy Organization and I talked to this organization’s senior officials a few days ago,” Rouhani told a gathering of people in Sabzevar in northeast Iran.

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran’s nuclear chief who is a nuclear physicist, has said his agency will resume enriching uranium to the purity level of 20 percent in a matter of few days if the agreement is ditched.

Rouhani also said necessary decisions have been made in case certain sanctions that had been removed under the nuclear accord are snapped back. 

“The economic sector has also received the necessary orders.”

Under the nuclear accord Iran is obliged to scale back its nuclear activities in exchange for termination of nuclear-related sanctions.

Since the nuclear deal went into effect in January 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency has issued 10 reports each time confirming that Iran has been honoring its commitments. 

“We have been committed to our obligations [under the JCPOA] in spite of the U.S. impediments. 

“Since 15 months ago, Trump has started to say that the deal is the worst deal ever which is harmful to the U.S. but beneficial to Iran… but we negotiated with logic and reached an agreement which was approved by the UN (Security Council),” Rouhani explained.

‘We will build as many weapons as the country needs’

Rouhani also said that Iran will build as many weapons and missiles as the country needs.

The West, led by the Trump administration, has been creating a commotion over Iran’s missile program which Tehran has been insisting is purely deterrent.  

“It is not related to anybody that what decision the Iranian nation has taken for their defense,” Rouhani asserted.

To convince Trump to stay in the nuclear deal, the three European countries party to the nuclear deal (France, Britain, and Germany) have backed negotiations with Iran over its missile program.
 
However Rouhani said, “We will not hold negotiations on our defense capabilities.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani said Iran is not after war in the region and seeks “peace, stability and security”.

He added, “We do not seek war and tension, however, we defend determinedly against any plot.” 

NA/PA