Iran urges U.S. to remain committed to nuclear deal

TEHRAN, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif urged the United States to remain committed to the 2015 international nuclear agreement, Tasnim news agency reported on Friday.

Zarif also hailed his recent talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, in Moscow and a meeting he had with the European Union's diplomatic chief and the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany on Thursday.

"What was clear at the meetings ... was that the international consensus was based on (the fact that) any move leading to the destruction of the JCPOA (nuclear deal) or a change in it would be unacceptable and would be confronted by the international community," he was quoted as saying.

In the talks, Iran emphasized that all parties, including the United States, should remain committed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and implement the deal completely so that Iran does the same, he added.

In July 2015, after a decade of strenuous negotiations, Iran and six major countries, namely, China, Russia, Britain, France, the United States and Germany, struck a final agreement on Iran's controversial nuclear program, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

However, as one of the most significant diplomatic legacies of U.S. President Donald Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, the hard-won nuclear deal has been running the gauntlet of Trump on his campaign trail and since he became president.

In October, Trump announced that he had decided to decertify Iran's compliance with the pact.

The United States was planning to reimpose sanctions on Iran, said U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday, ahead of Trump's decision on whether to extend sanctions relief on Iran under the 2015 nuclear deal. Enditem