On January 12, President Donald Trump extended sanctions waivers for Iran as required under the nuclear deal. But he warned that he would withdraw from the deal if European partners did not agree to fix perceived flaws in the agreement. On the same day, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned 14 individuals, including Iran’s judiciary chief, for human rights abuses and supporting weapons proliferation. Iranian officials condemned the moves. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif alleged that the United States was not in full compliance with the deal. The following are excerpted remarks by Iranian leaders.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
Trump's policy & today’s announcement amount to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement, maliciously violating its paras 26, 28 & 29. JCPOA is not renegotiable: rather than repeating tired rhetoric, US must bring itself into full compliance -just like Iran.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) January 12, 2018
President Hassan Rouhani
"In these couple of weeks, Americans have failed in two issues. One of them is where they wanted to stand against the world's public opinion and undermine international obligations."
"Commitments in domestic and international stages are of a moral nature, or the law and the proper interface of the humanities; the Americans' attempt to breach these obligations failed. The world stood against the United States. In the last few days, they wanted to violate the international commitments they made in the JCPOA, but you saw the line against it. All countries in the world, apart from one or two countries and a hateful regime, were all integrated against them.”
"Since the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), oil revenues have doubled and hundreds of foreign investments have been made in Iran.”
"The fact that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) announces the closure of the PMD case as a complicated technical and international case, means that Iran has been truthful and the enemies have lied and this victory is everlasting.”
"The world and the U.N. acknowledged Iran's right to nuclear research and development; the science of law and politics were leading this success.”
"It's been at least one year since Trump has been trying to kill JCPOA; this means the victory of law over dictatorship.”
—Jan. 14, 2018, at the Farabi International Award Ceremony
Foreign Ministry
The Islamic Republic of Iran and the international community have said that the JCPOA is an international valid document and is non-renegotiable under any circumstances.
Iran will not accept any commitment beyond what has been mentioned in the JCPOA and will not accept any change in the deal either.
The U.S. government, like other signatories to the JCPOA, is duty bound to fulfil its obligations under the JCPOA and must take consequences in case of violation.
The U.S. decision in imposing new sanctions on the Iranian individuals and entities proves the U.S. government’s animosity towards the great Iranian nation.
Iran will definitely respond to the U.S. act by putting the name of Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani on list of sanctions. The U.S. has crossed a red line by taking "hostile" and "illegal" act of putting Ayatollah Amoli Larijani on sanction list
—Jan. 13, 2018, in a statement
Judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani
“The U.S. should know that every hostile conduct will draw proportional reaction from Iran.”
—Jan. 15, 2018, in a meeting with judiciary officials