11 May 2024
Monday 21 November 2016 - 15:38
Story Code : 239967

US likely wiser than to harm own interests: Iran

Press TV- Irans Foreign Ministry spokesman has implied that the incoming administration of US President-elect Donald Trump is unlikely to harm American and international interests by potentially denting or scrapping a multi-lateral nuclear deal with Iran, which has been negotiated by the outgoing US administration.

There have been indications that a potential Trump administration may act to breach the deal or entirely stop implementing US commitments under the agreement, which was struck between Iran and six other countries, including the US, in July 2015.

Trump himself has exhibited bellicose rhetoric toward Iran, including by threatening to tear up the deal. However, Trump, who is a business tycoon with no background in diplomacy or governance, has also regretted that US businesses, according to him,are not profiting as a result of the deal as much as businesses in other countries are.

Referring to the rhetoric flip-flops by Trump, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Bahram Qassemi said on Tuesday that it was still too soon to say what implications aTrump presidency would have for the nuclear deal.

It is still soon to judge what is going to come about, he said, adding that he believed there was enough rationality within the American society to prevent the potential endangerment of American and international interests.

He did say, however, that Iran would have contingency plans for any scenario that may play out.
Iran anyway maintains its readiness and has prepared its options for whatever contingency. When the time comes, and if we feel that the American side is eventually about to take certain [unwelcome] measures in this regard, Iran will take necessary measures [of its own], the Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
Qassemi said that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as the agreement is known, is a multilateral agreement, not a bilateral one, and that it has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council.

I do not think it would be an easy thing for a single party to trample upon the deal or offer to renegotiate it, he said.

On the campaign trail, Trump had also said several times that he would renegotiate the deal. The bombastic president-elect has, however, not commented on Iran-related issuessince winning the US presidential election on November 8.

Optimism about ties with EU

Qassemi also said the Islamic Republic was optimistic about future convergence between Iran and the European Union (EU).

He hailed a recent statement by the EU that followed Trumps victory and that urged commitment to the JCPOA.

We have a lot in common with Europe and are not geographically so wide apart, and therefore, we can arrive at shared viewpoints concerning the Middle East and North Africa, he said.

He also said that it had been agreed during a Friday meeting in Paris between French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault and Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Majid Takht-e Ravanchi that the countries joint economic commission resume work in the second half of January 2017 after a 20-year hiatus.

Syria breakup plans abortive

Elsewhere in his remarks, Qassemi referred to a United Nations (UN) proposal for the establishment of an autonomous region in the militant-held district of a Syrian city and said such measures have always failed.

Syria has many players and influence-wielders. Syrias disintegration has many and serious opponents and cannot happen easily. We are not yet anywhere to start to treat these arguments as serious [ideas], he said, referring to the plan for the partition of Aleppo, the Syrian city.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has strongly rejected the idea, calling it a violation of our sovereignty.
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