Iran ruled out the possibility of acceding to a side deal reportedly under negotiation between Washington and European parties to the Iran nuclear agreement to appease US President Donald Trump in response to his excessive demands.
"Our stance is clear and unwavering. The JCPOA can never be reopened, renegotiated or re-discussed. In our view, there can exist no supplemental agreement, amendment or anything to that effect under any different wording," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told IRNA.
He was using an abbreviation that stands for the formal title of the 2015 nuclear accord between Iran and the six major powers, namely the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Araqchi's reassertion of the Islamic Republic's stance came hours ahead of another meeting of the JCPOA Joint Commission on Friday in Vienna to address Iran's grievances about the US uncooperative approach to the deal's implementation.
The issue has been the focus of almost all previous gatherings of the panel, which was established under the action plan to monitor its implementation and handle potential disputes between the parties involved.
Trump has been outspoken in criticizing the deal, negotiated under his predecessor Barack Obama, and has described it as "the worst deal I have ever seen in my life."
Under the historic accord, Iran was given relief from international sanctions in return for rolling back its nuclear development.
Trump has vowed to withdraw from the pact by declining to waive US sanctions in May, as required every four months by the US law, unless the Europeans agreed to strengthen the deal's terms by consenting to a side agreement that would effectively eliminate provisions that allow Iran to gradually resume some advanced atomic work.
Iran has denied western allegations that it has been seeking a nuclear warhead and insists that its nuclear program has always pursued civilian purposes.
Trump also wants tighter restrictions on Iran's ballistic missile program and Iran's regional role.
Tehran has rejected Trump's demand for a renegotiation of the JCPOA and for new constraints on its missile and regional activities.
London, Paris and Berlin as well as the EU have also rejected Trump's call for revisiting the deal but share Trump's non-nuclear concerns about Iran and are working with his administration to find a way to address those concerns without violating JCPOA's terms.
***Complicated Prospects
Araqchi said the deal's prospects have been complicated by Trump's hostile stance.
"Developments ahead of us will not be easy to deal with. We hope we can reach a mutual understanding in the Joint Commission," he said.
Araqchi and his delegation held bilateral talks with counterparts from other signatories to JCPOA on the sidelines of the commission's meeting.
"We raised the issue of the US obligations under the JCPOA and the breaches it has committed. Some countries hold a similar position to Iran's while those of other parties confirm the US is in violation of the action plan but fall short of expressly stating it," Araqchi said.
Elsewhere commenting on US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's sacking, Araqchi said the move shows that Washington is set on quitting the deal.
"The United States is determined to leave the nuclear deal, and changes at the State Department were made with that goal in mind —or at least it was one of the reasons," the diplomat said Wednesday, AFP reported.
Trump announced Tillerson's departure in a tweet a day earlier, saying he would be replaced by Central Intelligence Agency chief Mike Pompeo, who takes a much harder line on Iran than his predecessor.
Despite Trump's threat to scrap the accord, Tillerson had repeatedly stressed the importance of the US sticking to it.
A US exit could kill the pact between Iran, Germany and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.
The UN nuclear energy agency confirmed in February that Tehran had met its obligations under the agreement, an assessment also verified in all previous reports of the agency.
"If the US quits the nuclear deal, we will also quit it," Araqchi said. "We have told the Europeans that if they can't keep the US in the deal, Iran will also leave it."
