Zarif says Iran won’t ‘renegotiate or add to’ nuclear accord

Iran’s foreign minister takes to YouTube to criticize US President Donald Trump’s threat to withdraw from the nuclear deal, saying Iran will not “renegotiate or add onto” the atomic accord.

Mohammad Javad Zarif’s video, which was also posted to Trump’s favorite social media platform, Twitter, appeared to be taking his message to the masses after earlier speaking to news outlets across the United States to defend the deal.

The five-minute video shows Zarif behind his desk, delivering his message on the deal. He offers background first about the deal before laying into Trump and criticizing Europe for offering “the United States more concessions from our pocket.”

“On 11 occasions since, the UN nuclear watchdog has confirmed that Iran has implemented all of its obligations,” Zarif, who studied in the US, says in American-accented English. “In contrast, the US has consistently violated the agreement, especially by bullying others from doing business with Iran.”

Zarif adds: “Let me make it absolutely clear once and for all: We will neither outsource our security nor will we renegotiate or add onto a deal we have already implemented in good faith.”

Zarif goes on to say accuse Trump of relying on “cartoonish allegations rehashed from over a decade ago” an apparent jab at Netanyahu’s revelations this week that Israel obtained evidence that Iran lied to world powers prior to signing the agreement, seen by some as an effort by the prime minister to convince Trump to exit the deal.

These efforts, Zarif says, “have fooled no one.”

In the video, Zarif also appears to troll Trump as well, saying: “To put it in real-estate terms, when you buy a house and move your family in it or demolish it to build a skyscraper, you cannot come back two years later and renegotiate the price.”

There was no immediate response from Washington.

— with AP