Tehran, May 8
Iran today said it had stopped respecting limits on its nuclear activities agreed under a 2015 deal with major powers until they find a way to bypass renewed US sanctions.
The well-trailed announcement came as Washington stepped up its rhetoric against Tehran, accusing it of planning “imminent” attacks and deploying an aircraft carrier strike group with several nuclear-capable B-52 bombers to the region.
Iran said it was responding to the sweeping unilateral sanctions that Washington has reimposed since it quit the agreement one year ago, which have dealt a severe blow to the Iranian economy.
It said it would stop implementing some of the restrictions it had agreed with immediate effect.
Tehran said it would abandon more if the remaining parties to the agreement — Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia — failed to start delivering on their commitments to sanctions relief within 60 days.
President Hassan Rouhani underlined that the ultimatum was intended to rescue the nuclear deal from his US counterpart Donald Trump who has repeatedly called for it to be scrapped since he pulled out on May 8, 2018.
"We felt the (deal) needed surgery and that the year-long sedatives have not delivered any result. This surgery is meant to save the (deal), not destroy it," Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting broadcast live on state television.
Robert Kelley, a former UN nuclear inspector now with the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said the commitments Iran was dropping had no bearing on its ability to develop an atomic bomb. He said Iran was simply seeking to “save face” after "striking a deal which was not respected by the other side”. Under the landmark deal agreed by Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the parties to the agreement were supposed to lift nuclear-related sanctions on Iran in return for it reining in its activities to ease fears it was seeking the capability to produce an atomic bomb.
But the promised sanctions relief has failed to materialise as European and Asian banks and oil companies have moved swiftly to abide by the renewed US sanctions for fear of financial or commercial repercussions. Rouhani slammed European countries for seeing the US as the world's "sheriff" and said this keeps them from making "firm decisions for their own national interests”. — AFP
US: Tehran moved missiles by boat
- The decision to send an aircraft carrier and a group of Air Force bombers to the Middle East was based in part on intelligence indications that Iran had moved short-range ballistic missiles by boat in waters off its shores, an American official said
- The movement was among a range of recent indications that Iran might be considering or preparing to attack US forces in the region, he said
- The official said it was not clear whether the boats with missiles represented a new military capability that could be used against the US forces or were only being moved to shore locations
Russia, Iran blame Washington
- Russia and Iran condemned the US for Tehran’s forced move to scale back some curbs to its nuclear programme, while putting the onus on European powers to offer Iran sanctions relief
- “Putin has repeatedly spoken of the result of unthought-out steps regarding Iran and by that I mean the decision taken by US (to quit the deal). Now we are seeing those consequences are starting to happen,” the Kremlin spokesman said
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2vPAAva
via Today’s News Headlines
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