Iran, US trade warnings over nuclear deal

Iran accused the US of undermining the deal over its atomic programme while Washington warned against lax monitoring of Tehran’s nuclear activities at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy’s (IAEA) on Monday.

“We will not accept a weakly enforced or inadequately monitored deal,” US Energy Secretary Rick Perry said in Vienna, delivering a message on behalf of US President Donald Trump.

The warning came as the US administration is reviewing its stance towards the nuclear deal that Washington agreed to under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, along with five other global powers.

Trump and senior US officials are deeply sceptical about whether Iran can be trusted to honour the deal, pointing to the Islamic country’s previous efforts to hide its nuclear programme and its support for extremists abroad.

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, who heads the state-run nuclear programme, complained at the IAEA that the United States is trying to destroy the treaty.

The 2015 pact is designed to prevent Iran from building atomic weapons by scaling down its nuclear programme, in return for sanctions relief.

Salehi said that “the American administration’s overtly hostile attitude and actual foot-dragging policies and measures” is “aimed at undermining the nuclear deal.”

Last week, the US Treasury Department slapped new sanctions on 11 entities and individuals for supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and for being involved in cyberattacks against US financial institutions.

Washington’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, travelled to the IAEA in Vienna last month to lobby for tougher nuclear inspections in Iran, including military sites.

Such actions would “jeopardize this historic achievement,” Salehi warned, without outlining how Tehran might react if Washington would keep increasing the pressure.

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano stressed that the deal is working.

“The nuclear-related commitments undertaken by Iran under the [deal] are being implemented. Iran is now subject to the world’s most robust nuclear verification regime,” he said.

IAEA member states unanimously approved Amano for another four-year-term in office on Monday.

The 70-year old Japanese diplomat faced no rival candidate as he ran for a third term in office, as many member states had asked him to stay on to help implement the Iran agreement, which involves tough IAEA inspections.

Before Amano first assumed the office of IAEA director general in 2009, he had served as a senior arms control diplomat for Japan, including as Tokyo’s envoy to the IAEA.

Source: NAN