Rouhani calls US request for BoG meeting on Iran ‘funny story’

TEHRAN (defapress) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said new US’ call for holding Board of Governors session in Iran nuclear deal is a funny story.

News ID: 78029

Date: 10 July 2019 - 15:22

“On one side, Americans described the JCPOA as the worst possible deal and withdrew from it without any excuse and on the other side, when Iran reduces its commitments to the deal, they all express concern; while all should concern about US that has violated the whole deal,” said Rouhani in a Wednesday cabinet session.

“They have called for an emergency meeting of Board of Governors, asking why Iran has abandoned some of its JCPOA commitments. This is a funny story that US is following and such measures are rare in the world’s political history,” he added.

Upon the US request, IAEA Board of Governors will hold a meeting today to discuss the latest status of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Iran says US request for a BoG session is a ‘sad irony’ as it was the United States who ruined the deal in the first place.

Americans say that Iran’s uranium enrichment is a bad measure but they don’t elaborate that why they do it themselves as the sole country in the world which has used nukes, Rouhani said.

“Does enrichment which leads to the construction of fuel for a power reactor, satisfies people's needs for water desalination or electricity, leads to the production of radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of illnesses, and has thousands of other peaceful applications bad for Iran and good for others?” he framed.

Iran has announced cuts to its JCPOA commitments after other signatories to the deal failed to comply with their obligations. Iran is asking other signatories to shield its economy from US unilateral sanctions which were imposed after Washington withdrew from the deal in 2018.

Tehran says all its current measures to reduce its JCPOA commitments are according to paragraphs 26 and 36 of the deal.

Warning to the UK

“I warn England that you are the initiator of insecurity in seas and you will later understand its repercussions,” Rouhani said elsewhere in his remarks referring to the illegal seizure of an oil tanker laden with Iranian oil by British forces on Thursday.

“The enemy is looking for creating insecurity in the region so it violated Iran’s airspace and of course, faced a firm response. And on the other hand, they seized Iranian oil tanker by a proxy which was a very wrong action.”

“English forces seized this vessel unjustly in Giblartar,” he said adding that the region is Spain’s territory and the UK is occupying there.

London claims that the tanker had been carrying Iranian oil to Syria, which is under European Union’s sanctions but Iran says first, the tanker was not headed to Syria, and second, Iran is not an EU member and also not subject to any European oil embargo.

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