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Russia: Iran nuclear deal cannot survive if US pulls out

January 20, 2018 at 1:14 pm

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov attends the annual press conference at the Russia Foreign Ministry Conference Hall in Moscow, Russia, on 15 January 2018 [Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency]

Reuters reports Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday the Iran nuclear deal cannot survive if the United States pulls out of the agreement.

US President Donald Trump said a week ago that European allies and Congress have to work with him to fix “the disastrous flaws” in the nuclear pact or face a US exit. Trump wants it strengthened with a separate agreement within 120 days.

Lavrov told reporters at the United Nations in New York:

This agreement cannot be implemented if one of the participants unilaterally steps out of it. It will fall apart, there will be no deal then

Lavrov said he believed the United States was “going to try to convince the European states to take the same position that Washington has taken.”

Read: Iran’s Rouhani says US has failed to undermine nuclear deal

Most UN and Western sanctions on Iran were lifted two years ago under the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and key world powers, which is enshrined in a United Nations Security Council resolution.

“It cannot keep alive in a re-negotiated form, especially regarding the demands by the United States. It would not be acceptable for Iran and it is clear now, I believe, that the Europeans do understand this danger right now,” Lavrov said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said the deal was not renegotiable.

Russia has previously said that it would not support a US bid to change the nuclear agreement with Iran, while the EU has expressed it’s committment to the deal, and the French President Emmanuel Macron told Israeli’s Benjamin Netanyahu that the Iran nuclear deal must be upheld.

Read: China says Iran nuclear deal not derailed, pledges constructive role