Iran ‘united’ in defying new U.S. policy: envoy

May 22, 2018 - 15:29

TEHRAN – Iranian Ambassador to London Hamid Baeidinejad has denounced the recent anti-Iran remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying Iran is “united” in countering the new policy adopted by the Trump administration.

Announcing Washington’s new policy toward Iran on Monday, Pompeo demanded that Tehran halt all uranium enrichment, stop its ballistic-missile program and give nuclear inspectors access to the entire country. He also said the U.S. will “crush” Iran with economic and military pressure unless it changes its behavior in the Middle East.

It came two weeks after U.S President Donald Trump withdrew his country from the nuclear deal, officially recognized as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). 

Trump’s move came despite the fact that the UN’s nuclear watchdog, in charge of monitoring Iran's compliance with the deal, has confirmed that Tehran has abided by the terms of the agreement.

“Instead of announcing the new [U.S.] policy, the Trump administration demonstrated America’s arrogant and delusional nature,” Ambassador Baeidinejad wrote in his Instagram page.

In a post on his Instagram page on Monday, Baeidinejad said international security researchers and think tanks at the very first minutes after Pompeo’s speech “ridiculed the U.S. government’s policy” and called it an “illusion” which is “impossible to achieve”.

“Instead of announcing the new [U.S.] policy, the Trump administration demonstrated America’s arrogant and delusional nature,” he said.

Hinting at U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal, the ambassador said that over the past year and a half, the Trump administration tried hard to conceal its deep resentment toward the JCPOA because it knew it would face explicit worldwide opposition.

But today, he continued, as the administration reached its end game, it finally unveiled its “zero-enrichment” policy for Iran.

The Obama administration’s acknowledgment of Iran’s right to enrichment led to the nuclear talks which in turn paved the way for the nuclear pact, he said, stressing that Iran’s right to enrichment was the most important achievement of the deal.

The text of the JCPOA was written based on such right and there’s no way the deal can be revised in absence of Iran’s enrichment right, Baeidinejad stated.

MH/PA

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