Tehran also warns US not to breach 2015 nuke deal
TEHRAN (IANS) — Iran’s Defence Minister Amir Hatami has accused the US and Israel of spreading extremist and terrorist activities in the Middle East, Tasnim news agency reported on Thursday.
Extremism serves the interests of Israel and the US in the region, Hatami was quoted as saying.
In the face of such threats, Iran has helped Syria and Iraq in the war against terrorists, Hatami said in a meeting with his Kazakh counterpart on the sidelines of a security conference in Moscow.
He called for continued interaction between Iran and Kazakhstan in international organisations.
For his part, Kazakh Minister of Defence and Aerospace Industry Beibut Atamkulov hailed the cooperation among Iran, Russia and Turkey in the battle against terrorism that prevented the escalation of the crisis in Syria.
Iran warns US
Iran’s nuclear chief has warned the US not to make any more move against the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal, the media reported.
“We are seriously looking to preserve our national interests and sovereignty, but if the US withdraws and Europe and other great powers retreat from this agreement, we will definitely do something different,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI), Xinhua reported on Thursday citing Press TV.
Salehi described US President Donald Trump as a businessman who tries to advance his international agendas with unpredictable decisions.
Trump has repeatedly demanded the elimination of sunset clauses for some of the restrictions the US places on Iran from the nuclear deal, stronger inspection rules, and limitation to Iran’s development of long-range missiles.
But Iran says it will neither tolerate anything beyond its commitment to the nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), nor accept changes to the agreement.