Press TV - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the recent remarks by US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley show her lack of familiarity withthe contentof the historic nuclear agreement between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries.
What Ms.Haley has declared mostly show her ignorance of the text of the [nuclear] agreement in all fields, about which she expressed her opinion, Zarif said in an interview with the official news website of the Iranian administration, dolat.ir,published on Saturday.
He added that the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is a completely clear and transparent agreement, adding that the level of monitoring has been determined in it.
He said the JCPOA has been negotiated and written very precisely and has a complete framework with specified approaches in all fields.
Underlining the Islamic Republics stance, Zarif tweeted later on Saturday that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) certifies Irans commitment to the nuclear agreement according to the provisions and conditions outlined in the deal, not the ulterior motives of US officials, nor of lobbyists.
Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - signed the JCPOA on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.
Under the nuclear agreement, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.
Speaking at a news conference in New York on August 25, Haley called on the IAEAto request access to Iranian military sites, in what is regarded as an attempt by Washington to undermine the JCPOA, which is a multilateral nuclear deal.
We are encouraging the IAEA to use all the authorities they have and to pursue every angle possible with the JCPOA, and we will continue to support the IAEA in that process, she said.
The IAEA is tasked with monitoring Iranian compliance with the deal, a basically technical matter that falls within the agencys area of expertise. The IAEA has consistently verified that Iran has been in compliance since the start of the implementation of the deal.
In reaction to Haleys comments, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on August 27 that the European countries of the P5+1 group must counter the US unilateral policies and said they should not allow any country to unilaterally undermine the JCPOA.
Zarif vehemently rejected the US envoys comments about the IAEAs monitoring and verification work in Iran, saying Tehran has lived up to its commitments under the JCPOA.
What the JCPOA has demanded is being implemented and what Ms. Haley wants may be different from that, the Iranian foreign minister said.
He added that the US diplomat cannot raise her wishes and demands as JCPOAs flaws.
In her last month meeting with IAEA chief Yukiya Amano, Haley claimedthat "IAEA reports (about Iran's adherence to the accord) can only be as good as the access Iran grants to any facility the IAEA suspects of having a nuclear role."
She also alleged thatthe nuclear agreement containsambiguous language andIran must be prevented from "exploiting" this vagueness.
Elsewhere in the interview, Zarif further emphasized that the JCPOA has led to the removal of obstacles in the way of Irans interaction with the world countries and expressed hope that the Iranian government would expand all-out relations with the world.
The JCPOA is still a priority of the Islamic Republic of Iran and perhaps one of the most important diplomatic achievements over the past decades and thats why it is of high significance, the Iranian foreign minister said.
He added that Irans foreign policy seeks to boost broad interaction with the entire world.
