MOSCOW (Sputnik) – The Iranian nuclear deal will collapse if US President Donald Trump refuses to continue imposing veto on sanctions against Tehran every four months, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araqchi said Wednesday.
"Trump should decide about withholding the sanctions against Iran at the end of [the Iranian month of] Ordibehesht [mid May]. The US president needs to withhold the sanctions every four months. Therefore, if Trump continues to veto the sanctions, then everything will be clear; but if he doesn’t extend the veto and the sanctions return, this would amount to tearing up the nuclear deal," Araqchi said, as quoted by Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Seyed Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, according to the Fars news agency.
Araqchi pointed out that the President Trump was under pressure of various countries including Saudi Arabia that want to prevent the United States from improving relations with Iran.
"The US president may choose different scenarios and the worst scenario can be pressuring the Islamic Republic while keeping the nuclear deal," Hosseini quoted Araqchi as saying.
However, on December 1, the US Senate voted unanimously to prolong 1979 sanctions by another 10 years after they expire this month. Then-US President Barack Obama refused to sign the bill but allowed it to become a law. Former White House spokesman Eric Schultz said on December 2 the United Sattes believed that extension of sanctions would not interfere with the JCPOA.
