Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister says new US sanctions against Iran violated a nuclear deal between Tehran and six world powers, US included.
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Abbas Araqchi made the announcement on Wednesday, shortly after US President Donald Trump T signed into law a bill by Congress that imposes new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.
Araqchi who is also a senior Iranian nuclear negotiator says the signing of fresh anti-Iran sanctions by Trump is an attempt to destroy the countries nuclear deal with world powers. He added that among the measures taken to counter new hostile measures by the US is strengthening the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, IRGC. Araqchi also pointed out that Iran will also boost the capacity of IRGC's Quds force which is involved in combatting terrorism across the region.
Iran and the P5+1 group of countries -- the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany -- inked the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in July 2015. It lifted nuclear related sanctions on Iran, which, in turn, put certain limits on its nuclear work.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has invariably certified Iran's commitment to its contractual obligations since January 2016, when the deal took effect. The US, however, has prevented the deal from fully yielding. Washington has refused to offer global financial institutions the guarantees that they would not be hit by American punitive measures for transactions with Iran.
Trump had signed the bill behind closed doors and away from the cameras, two White House sources said Wednesday.
In signing it, Trump avoided the humiliating prospect of Congress overriding his veto, the White House sources said.
The president had privately opposed the measures and his aides had lobbied against them.
Congress passed the new sanctions package last week against Russia, Iran and North Korea.
The bill imposes tough additional sanctions on Russia over Moscow's alleged meddling in last year's US presidential election and Crimea's reunification with Russia in 2014.
Trump's reluctance to sign the bill was clearly evident in a signing statement, in which he called the legislation "significantly flawed" with "unconstitutional provisions."
"While I favor tough measures to punish and deter aggressive and destabilizing behavior by Iran, North Korea, and Russia, this legislation is significantly flawed," he said in the statement.
"In its haste to pass this legislation, the Congress included a number of clearly unconstitutional provisions," he said.
LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/7810
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