TEHRAN — Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Iran will not renegotiate the 2015 nuclear agreement it signed with six world powers and the European Union.

Washington is not in a position to set conditions for implementing its own commitments under the nuclear agreement, Zarif said on Thursday, addressing the 6th edition of the Rome Mediterranean Dialogues 2020.

Iran signed the nuclear deal, officially called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), with the U.S., Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union on July 14, 2015.

However, the JCPOA was abandoned by U.S. President Donald Trump on May 8, 2018. Trump replaced the pact with a “maximum pressure” policy against Tehran in order to pressure Iran into negotiating a new deal.

With the defeat of Trump in the November 3 presidential election, hopes were raised over a possible revival of the JCPOA under President-elect Joe Biden.

The Iranian foreign minister says the West can talk about other issues only if they stop “their malign behavior in the region” and “malign support” for the terrorist regime of Israel, otherwise they “have to shut up”.  Zarif stated that Iran’s position is that the deal is not open to renegotiation and the U.S. has to observe the agreement and the UN resolution that endorses it.

He said with its bashing of the JCPOA, the Trump administration acted as a “rogue regime”.

The United States has “obligations, responsibilities as a UN member, as a Security Council member. And there’s a Security Council Resolution 2231, which the U.S. must observe,” the chief Iranian diplomat remarked, Press TV reported.

He said if the incoming Biden administration asks Tehran to come and renegotiate the JCPOA, it would be walking in the same “rogue” steps as Trump’s team.

Washington has to cease its violation of the international law, Zarif asserted.

According to Zarif, the U.S. and the three European countries in the deal insisted on their continued violation of the JCPOA, Iran would have to act on a pending parliamentary measure that would restrict the UN nuclear agency’s access to the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.

On Iran’s circumstance during the coronavirus pandemic, Zarif said Iran has been hit by a third wave of infections, and its medical staff have been putting up with too much for too long.

‘Iran suffering from Coronavirus more than the rest of the world because of economic war’ 

The reason that the country has been overwhelmed by the virus to such an extent was that it is suffering from something more than the rest of the world is, and that is an economic war, he said. “This is way beyond restrictions,” he added, referring to the U.S. sanctions.

Zarif also said the U.S. has been preventing Iran from gaining access to billions of dollars in its overseas financial resources to buy vaccines.

Iran’s Health Ministry and its Central Bank have been trying to tap into the money, but “we haven’t had much success,” he said, adding that if Washington chose to refute this “they’re simply lying.”

“And that, in every definition of the word, is a crime against humanity,” he lamented.

He also pointed to the Israeli regimes’ crimes in the region, saying Israel has been able to keep up its deadly aggressive actions thanks to the Western-sourced impunity.

The Israeli regime has therefore carried on with annexation of Palestinian territories and assassinated yet another Iranian nuclear scientist as early as last week without condemnation, without consequences, Zarif remarked.

“When they are ready to deal with their own problems of their own malign behavior in the region, their malign support for a terrorist regime, then they can start talking about other things,” he said.

However, “as long as they’re not able to put up, they have to shut up,” he concluded.

On Friday at 14:30, the convoy of Iranian nuclear Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was targeted on a highway in the small city of Absard in Damavand County, about 40 kilometers northeast of the capital Tehran. The scientist lost his life during the attack while his bodyguards were severely injured. 

Iranian officials were quick to point the finger at Israel, which has carried out assassination operations against Iranian nuclear scientists over the past decade. Zarif said in a tweet on Friday that the attack was carried out with “serious indications of Israeli role”.

MH/PA