‘Sad irony’: Rouhani mocks US for calling emergency meeting on Iran nuclear deal...which it left

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called it a “sad irony” that an International Atomic Energy Agency meeting is being held at the behest of the US despite President Trump being the main contributor to the demise of the Iran deal.

The Board of Governors of the IAEA is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss the current status of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) at the request of the US, which famously withdrew from the so-called ‘Iran Deal’ before introducing a raft of new sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation in 2018. 

“On one side, Americans described the JCPOA as the worst possible deal and withdraw from it without any excuse and on the other side, when Iran reduces its commitments to the deal, they all express concern; while all should concern about US that has violated the whole deal,” Rouhani said during a Wednesday cabinet session as cited by the Mehr News agency.

“They have called for an emergency meeting of [the] Board of Governors, asking why Iran has abandoned some of its JCPOA commitments. This is a funny story that US is following and such measures are rare in the world’s political history,” Rouhani added.

The president also called out what he alleged was US hypocrisy over uranium enrichment when the US is the only country in history to have ever deployed nuclear weapons in an offensive capacity. 

Iran has yet to withdraw fully from the agreement but has recently announced cuts to its commitments in response to new rafts of US sanctions imposed following the US withdrawal in 2018.

Rouhani said that Iran's moves were within the framework of the deal and he rejected a warning from European parties to the pact to continue its full compliance. He called on other signatories of the deal to shield Iran from US sanctions while also issuing a stern warning to the UK over its seizure of an Iranian supertanker off the coast of Gibraltar last Thursday.

“I warn England that you are the initiator of insecurity in seas and you will later understand its repercussions,” Rouhani stated, adding that British forces had seized the vessel “unjustly,” claiming that the US had, in fact, seized the tanker “by proxy” through its ally.

Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!