Zarif Rules Out JCPOA Renegotiation, Slams Europeans’ Attempts to Appease Trump

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif reiterated that Tehran will by no means agree to renegotiate the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or add any new terms to it, warning that Iran will choose how to respond to a US withdrawal from the nuclear deal.

In a video message released on Youtube and his twitter account on Thursday, Zarif dismissed the idea of revision of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany).

“Let me make it absolutely clear once and for all: We will neither outsource our security, nor will we negotiate or add onto a deal we have already implemented in good faith,” he stressed.

Pointing to US President Donald Trump’s attempts to scrap the JCPOA over the past two years, Zarif said with sarcasm, “To put it in real estate terms, when you buy a house and move your family in or demolish it to build a skyscraper, you cannot come back two years later and try to renegotiate the price.”

“In the coming days, the United States will have to decide whether to finally abide by its obligations,” Zarif said of the US president’s plan to announce his administration’s policy on the JCPOA on May 12.

“If the US continues to violate the agreement, or if it withdraws all together, we will exercise our right to respond in a manner of our choosing. Bluster or threats won’t get the US a new deal particularly as it is not honoring the deal it has already made,” Zarif explained.

“It now appears that the response form some Europeans has been to offer the United States more concessions, from our pocket. This appeasement entails promises of a new deal that would include matters we all decided to exclude at the outset of our negotiations, including Iran’s defense capabilities, and regional influence,” he underlined.

As regards the Israeli prime minister’s recent allegations against Iran’s nuclear program, Zarif said, “Relying on cartoonish allegations, rehash from more than a decade ago, and dealt with by the IAEA, to make a case for nixing the deal has fooled no one.”

“Thus, the US is well advised to finally start honoring its commitments, or it, and only it, will have to accept responsibility for the consequences of not doing so,” the Iranian minister warned.