Iran has warned that it will quit the 2015 nuclear deal and reactivate its controversial nuclear program if the US continues to target it with sanctions. “If America wants to go back to the experience [of imposing sanctions], Iran would certainly return in a short time – not a week or a month but within hours – to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations,” President Rouhani told the Iranian parliament on Tuesday. Under the deal, known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached in 2015 between Iran and the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, Iran halts its nuclear program while the West lifts gradually the economic sanctions. President Rouhani accused the new administration at the White House of turning its back to commitments made by Washington on the international stage. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres wants the nuclear agreement to be upheld, describing it as “one of the utmost diplomatic achievements in our collective search for peace and security,” his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

Source: The North Africa Journal August 16, 2017 15:32 UTC