Iran open to minor changes to nuclear deal if US lifts sanctions
Rouhani at UN says he’s willing to discuss ‘small changes, additions or amendments’ in exchange for economic relief; Trump says he will step up pressure campaign
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At the United Nations General Assembly, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday said he was open to discussing minor changes to the 2015 nuclear accord if Washington agreed to lift sanctions on Tehran.
“I will be open to discuss small changes, additions or amendments to the nuclear deal if sanctions were taken away,” Rouhani said, according to Reuters.
US President Donald Trump last year pulled out of the nuclear accord with Iran and world powers, negotiated under former president Barack Obama, sending tensions soaring as he tried to stop all countries from buying Iran’s oil.
Trump on Tuesday at the United Nations said that crippling US sanctions imposed on Iran would continue until the Islamic Republic changed its behavior.
In a highly anticipated address before the international community — as tensions with Iran intensified after it allegedly attacked two Saudi oil facilities — Trump insisted that he would maintain his “maximum pressure campaign” against Tehran.
Iran, he said, was on a “fanatical quest for nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them.” The world, Trump continued, “must never allow this to happen.”
“All nations have a duty to act,” Trump said. “No responsible government should subsidize Iran’s bloodlust. As long as Iran’s illicit behavior continues, sanctions will not be lifted. They will be tightened.”
Last week, the US sanctioned Iran’s central bank and two other major state financial institutions as punishment for its alleged attacks on crucial oil supplies in Saudi Arabia. It also said it would send military forces and hardware to Gulf allies and moved to sever some of Iran’s last ties to world markets.
Analysts have feared the moves could leave Trump with little else to sanction for, possibly paving the way for a military confrontation if they do not yield their intended results of altering Iranian behavior and bringing its leaders to the negotiating table to hammer out a revised nuclear accord.
After Trump withdrew the United States from the Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May 2018, he stated his intention to forge another deal with stronger terms.
The US president said he wanted the pact to include a ban on ballistic missile testing, allow international inspectors access to Iran’s military sites and contain no sunset provisions that allow certain restrictions on its nuclear program to expire.
The Times of Israel Community.