Iran will never renegotiate nuclear deal, says top diplomat

Pointing to the financial gains it has made since the nuclear deal was implemented, Iran said it will never renegotiate the terms. 

A senior Iranian nuclear negotiator asserted that the Islamic Republic will never renegotiate the nuclear deal, while stressing that the agreement will not bring Iran closer to the West.

Speaking at a press conference marking the first anniversary of the implementation of the agreement, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi defended the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA – aka the nuclear deal) as the step that enabled several new opportunities for Iran’s economy and brought many Europeans to Iran.

Araghchi, who is also head of JCPOA Follow-Up Committee, said he believed that the “vilified image” which the international community had of Iran has been shattered. There is now “a fresh image” of the country as a member of the international community, he said.

Araghchi pointed to the now-frequent European visits to Tehran as indicative of the nuclear deal’s success in opening up the country to international companies, which was impossible before the signing of the agreement.

“Iran will never renegotiate the JCPOA, neither with [the] current administration nor with Trump’s,” declared Araghchi, responding to questions by the press about President-elect Donald Trump’s pledge to renegotiate the deal.

“Mr. Trump could only either accept or reject the deal; [the] JCPOA is a finished deal for Iran and the country will never sit to renegotiate a deal which has international powers’ support behind [it],” he added, according to Iran’s Mehr News.

Araghchi repeated an earlier warning by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who publicly stated, “If they tear it up, we will burn it.”

Araghchi admitted that with Iran’s banking sector, the conditions were far from satisfactory, with only a small number of banks willing to work with those in Iran. “The US financial system has not allowed Iran to trade in dollars. This creates huge problems almost insurmountable in international banking,” he said.

“Other obstacles include anti-money laundering rules and measures to watch over financial support for terrorism. Nevertheless, Iran’s banking system…managed to circumvent the hurdles to do transactions with the global system.”

The Islamic Republic was ranked as the world’s top global money-laundering threat, according to the Basel Institute on Governance’s 2016 Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Index released in August.

Similarly, Iran is ranked as one of the biggest supports and financiers of terrorism in the world.

Araghchi reiterated Iran’s criticism of the US as “the arch-enemy” which “acts demonically” in violation of the nuclear deal and could contribute to even more “intense hostility” with the Islamic Republic.

“This is [an] inaccuracy to assume that the JCPOA will make Iran and the US embrace a détente and a thaw in decades-old ice in bilateral relations; we just managed to negotiate our nuclear deal,” and no changes will be made, he stated.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News