Iran will remain in the 2015 nuclear deal only if its interests are ensured by other signatories after the United States withdrew from the accord, President Hassan Rouhani told a news conference on Wednesday.
Rouhani said the US withdrawal is “illegal”.
Elaborating the point, the president said, “Neither the United States nor any other country will benefit from the decision to withdraw from the agreement.” He was addressing reporters after meeting Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen.
"If the other signatory states can guarantee Iran's interests, we will continue with the JCPOA without the US," he said.
The foreign ministers of Iran and five major powers (France, Britain, Germany, China and Russia) will meet in Vienna on Friday in a new bid to save the landmark agreement.
The US pulled out of the deal and is planning moves to reimpose economic sanctions leaving the remaining five states to salvage the 2015 agreement formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
Costly Isolation
Rouhani said on Tuesday that the US will have to pay a heavy price for its attempts to isolate Iran, expressing confidence that the nation will turn threats into opportunities through unity.
"In the past, whenever the Americans were plotting against the Iranian people, they could convince at least some countries to support them. However, this is the first time that the Americans want to carry out a plot against Iran while no other country, except for one or two small nations, have supported them," the president said at a meeting with a group of Iranians in Vienna, IRNA reported.
Today, international organizations such as the United Nations and the European Union as well as an overwhelming majority of countries are standing by Iran, he said, in reference to growing global criticism of US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the nuclear agreement.
A Goal Too Far
"The current situation will make the US confrontation with Iran very costly," Rouhani said, adding, "The Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to foil American plots, as it always has, because their positions are illogical, illegal, unjust and against international obligations and the UN Security Council resolutions."
He said the US will not be able to cut Iran's relations with the world no matter how hard it tries. "The Americans claim that they want to destroy the bridges connecting Iran with the world. They will never achieve that goal."
A senior commander of Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said on Wednesday that the Guard is willing and able to implement any move to prevent regional oil exports if Trump creates the conditions wherein Iran is unable to export its crude oil.
Rouhani seemed to imply on Tuesday during a state visit to Switzerland that if Washington presses ahead with its goal of forcing countries and companies to stop buying Iranian oil, other Persian Gulf Arab allies of the US will also not able to sell their oil that passes through the Hormuz Strait.
Praising Rouhani’s remarks and thanking him for his rare and straightforward position, Major General Qassem Soleimani said he was ready to help the president in any possible manner in this specific issue and in the interest of the nation at large.
Soleimani said it is a source of pride and honor to read Rouhani’s comment that if Iran’s oil is not allowed to be exported then there will be no guarantee that for other exporters it would be business as usual.
The president acknowledged that the hostile US stance has created problems in certain areas but noted that recent developments have opened up new opportunities that can help the economy become more self-reliant.
"We have to turn the atmosphere that has been created by such pressures and threats into a positive climate and help each other so that we can overcome the problems that ill-wishers are seeking to create."
Rouhani's trip to Austria came as he tries to press Europe into delivering on its promise to shore up the 2015 nuclear deal, imperiled by the US pullout.
Since the US exit in May, deals with Europe worth hundreds of millions of dollars are in jeopardy because European companies are afraid of running afoul of US sanctions.
The president visited Switzerland on the first leg of his two-nation European trip. The visits to Switzerland and Austria were significant because the Swiss represent US interests in Iran, and Austria holds the rotating European Union presidency.
Syria
Rouhani reaffirmed his government’s determination to stand by Syrian President Bashar Assad in the Arab nation’s years-long civil war.
Rouhani spoke to reporters in Vienna where he held talks with Chancellor Sebastian Kurz on Wednesday.
He said the people of Iran “will continue our path alongside the nation and government of Syria, until all terrorists are annihilated.”
