The secretary of the Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani said on Friday the United States is seeking excuses to tear up the nuclear deal with Iran by demanding military site inspections.
“Iran has no undisclosed nuclear activity in any geographical location in the country,” Shamkhani, said on state television.
“The issues being raised are media hype by the Americans so that they can refrain from fulfilling their obligations.”
Washington has demanded inspections of Iranian military sites as part of verifying compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, which restricted Iran’s atomic program in exchange for an easing of sanctions.
The United Nations has stated there is no obligation to carry out military site inspections unless there are suspicions of illicit activity.
It says it has doubled inspections in Iran since the deal and has no evidence that nuclear material has been shifted to military or other sites.
Shamkhani accused the administration of President Donald Trump of “unconstructive and excuse-seeking behavior… which is an active attempt to damage this international agreement”.
“Iran has merely acted within the framework of agreements and specific guidelines under the JCPOA (nuclear deal) and shall not accept any obligation beyond that,” he said.
He echoed Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who tweeted on Thursday that the idea of reworking the nuclear deal was “pure fantasy”.
“The #JCPOA is not (re)negotiable. A ‘better’ deal is pure fantasy. About time for U.S. to stop spinning and begin complying, just like Iran,” Zarif wrote.
Zarif is due to meet US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the foreign ministers of other signatories of the nuclear deal on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly next Wednesday.
Source: AFP
