No Concern Over Trump’s JCPOA Policy

A lawmaker said the Islamic Republic pursues a "clear" policy unaffected by the approach of US president-elect Donald Trump to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Republican Trump won more than 270 electoral votes to be elected president earlier this month in an upset victory over his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

There has been widespread speculation over the fate of the landmark accord under Trump.

During campaigning for the White House, he vowed to tear up the agreement, calling it a "disaster" and "the worst deal ever negotiated", but later conceded it would be hard to destroy a deal enshrined in a United Nations resolution.

It was negotiated between Iran and P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) in July last year and was put in place in January to roll back Tehran's nuclear program in return for relief from international sanctions.

"The Islamic Republic has a transparent and clear strategy. The JCPOA has not benefited us and even if [the Americans] tear it up, it will not affect us because we will lose nothing and as the Leader has said we will set it ablaze [in response]," Hossein Naqavi Hosseini, spokesperson for Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told ICANA on Sunday.

JCPOA is the abbreviation of the formal title of the accord, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

  Echoing Leader's Stance

Hosseini was echoing the stance of the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei who said on Wednesday Iran feels no concern about the results of the recent US presidential vote because it has never tied its foreign policy to changes in the US power structure.

"Unlike those who are celebrating or lamenting the outcome of the US election, we neither celebrate nor lament it, and it makes no difference to us and does not have us concerned because, with God's help, we are prepared to deal with any eventuality," the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei had already promised to pull out of the deal if the West violated it.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first to renege on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, because it is against Qur'anic teachings. But if the threat by US presidential candidates to tear up the JCPOA is implemented, the Islamic Republic will set fire to it, in line with another Qur'anic instruction about how to react to a broken promise by the other party to the deal." the Leader said in response to Trump's initial threat in mid-June.

Iran has repeatedly complained it has not received benefits promised by the deal, largely because of the remaining US sanctions imposed on non-nuclear grounds.

US Republican lawmakers, who control the House of Representatives and Senate, unanimously oppose the nuclear deal and have introduced several anti-Iran measures to interfere with its implementation.

In its latest move last week, the House passed a bill that would block the sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, to stop sales by Boeing and Airbus already approved by President Barack Obama's administration.

In a separate talk with ISNA on Monday, Hosseini denounced the legislation as a violation of JCPOA.