Iran could walk away from JCPOA if US scraps it: Zarif

Zarif made the remarks on Saturday in an interview with Fareed Zakaria of the American media Cable News Network (CNN).

Commenting on a question over Iran's reaction regarding [US] President Doland Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal or decertification of Iran, he said 'Certification is not a part of the deal. It's US internal procedure. It does not absolve President Trump and his administration of the responsibility because the only authority that has been recognized in the nuclear deal to verify is the IAEA.'

'Iran will look at the outcome of this process and will consider its options. Iran has a number of options which include walking away from the deal and going back with great speed with its nuclear program which will not address and except the limitations that we voluntarily accepted over our nuclear program.'

'Let me stress one thing that has been a myth here in the United States and we need to dispel that myth. They say there is a sunset clause in the deal. There is no sunset clause. Iran has committed itself never to develop nuclear weapons both as a member of NPT and in the deal itself.'

Elaborating on his message to Donald Trump after the later's anti-Iran statements at the UN General Assembly, Zarif said 'I think it's in the interest of the United States to look at the realities. There are no alternative realities. Realities in our region are crystal clear they have been for the last forth years and the United States has unfortunately decided to neglect those realities and has not fared well.'

Elsewhere in his remarks Zarif pointed to Iran's defensive needs saying, 'You talked about missiles. Iran has defensive needs. Iran is not buying $400bn of so called 'beautiful' military equipment from the United States. Iran needs to develop its own defense we have set time and again and we have proved it that our missiles are for defense.

'You know we go back to history where our cities were being showered with missiles of Saddam Hussein [the Iraqi toppled dictator] but at that time Saddam Hussein was a sweatheart for the United States and some Western countries. Nobody turned any eyebrow against Saddam Hussein for his use of all these missiles.

'Iran did not have a single missile to work as a deterrent against its citizens and its civilians being targeted of almost daily missile attacks even against the capital.'


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