Zarif: We will never negotiate a new nuclear deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif ruled out the possibility of any negotiation on a new nuclear deal.

“We will never negotiate a new deal,” Zarif was quoted by Tehran Times as having said on Friday during his visit to India.

Iran and six world powers signed a nuclear deal in 2015, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, under which Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear activities in exchange for the termination of sanctions.

However, US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of the deal in May 2018 and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

In response, Iran gradually scaled back its compliance with the 2015 deal, before announcing earlier this month that it will abandon the deal amid heightened tensions with the United States over the killing of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.

Britain, France and Germany triggered the accord’s dispute mechanism that could eventually lead to reimposing UN sanctions on Iran, a move which came in response to Iran’s repeated violations of the agreement.

Trump has been urging a new deal with more limits on Iran’s nuclear program.

Zarif called for the Indian government to persuade the US government to return to the 2015 deal.

Responding to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s remarks about replacing the nuclear deal with the “Trump deal”, Zarif said that, if this happens, in the future there would be a need to reach “[Elizabeth] Warren’s deal” or “[Bernie] Sanders’ deal”.

“The JCPOA is an agreement between us, the United States and five other important countries and one country’s withdrawal is not accepted,” he stated.