Iran’s president ridiculed President Trump at the United Nations on Wednesday as an “ignorant” novice in world affairs and said the U.S. would damage its credibility by following through on Mr. Trump’s threat to pull out of the nuclear deal with Tehran.
Speaking at the same rostrum where Mr. Trump criticized Iran’s “rogue” regime a day earlier, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the U.S. that Tehran will “respond decisively” to any violation of the nuclear accord.
“It will be a great pity if this agreement were to be destroyed by ‘rogue’ newcomers to the world of politics,” Mr. Rouhani told the U.N. General Assembly. “The world will have lost a great opportunity, but such unfortunate behavior will never impede Iran’s course of progress and advancement.”
Mr. Trump told reporters in New York that he has made up his mind about whether to withdraw next month from the nuclear deal, but he is keeping the decision to himself for now.
“I have decided,” he said with a big smile.
In his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr. Trump said the nuclear agreement, struck by President Obama with other world powers in 2015, was “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into.”
“Frankly, that deal is an embarrassment to the United States, and I don’t think you’ve heard the last of it — believe me,” Mr. Trump said.
U.S. officials have given conflicting signals about the nuclear agreement forged with Iran and five other major powers: Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia.
Nikki Haley, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Mr. Trump’s criticisms showed his unhappiness but not a decision to withdraw from the deal.
Mr. Trump faces a deadline of Oct. 15 to certify that Iran is complying with the pact. If he decides that Iran is out of compliance, then Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions that were lifted by the agreement.
Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, emerging Wednesday night from a meeting of the countries that signed the nuclear deal, said all parties agree that Iran is in “technical compliance” with the accord.
But he said the U.S. has other “significant issues” with the agreement, including its sunset provisions and the continuation of Iran’s destabilizing activities such as military support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad and extremists in Yemen.
He said Mr. Trump finds the planned expiration of the agreement’s provisions within 10 to 15 years “simply unacceptable.”
The Iranian president said Tehran would not make the first move against the pact, which was years in the making.
“I declare to you the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first country to violate the agreement, but it will respond decisively and resolutely to its violation by any party,” he told the General Assembly.
He accused the Trump administration of hurting U.S. interests.
“By violating its international commitments, the new U.S. administration only destroys its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it or accepting its word or promise,” he said.
Mr. Rouhani said he was democratically elected on a platform of moderation and international engagement, suggesting to his audience that hard-liners in Iran are hoping for the deal to fail.
The Iranian leader told reporters later that he doesn’t think the U.S. will pull out of the nuclear deal despite Mr. Trump’s rhetoric, and he said any country that withdraws from the accord would isolate and embarrass itself. He said a decision by Mr. Trump to withdraw from the agreement would be “condemned by the American people” and that U.S. allies wouldn’t support it “because breaking the agreement is not something that can be defensible.”
He denied that Iran wants nuclear weapons.
“Iran has never sought nuclear weapons, will never seek nuclear weapons, is now not seeking nuclear weapons,” Mr. Rouhani said. “We are talking about enrichment, not building an atom bomb. Even in Japan today they have enrichment, and with enrichment their power plants are receiving the needed fuel through enriched uranium.”
In his speech Tuesday, Mr. Trump criticized Iran’s “murderous” regime for supporting terrorism around the globe and called on the United Nations to confront Tehran more forcefully to end its sponsorship of violent Islamist extremism. He said Iran’s leaders have turned the once-prosperous nation “into an economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed and chaos.”
Mr. Rouhani said Mr. Trump’s “ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric, filled with ridiculously baseless allegations, that was uttered before this august body” wasn’t appropriate for an organization dedicated to promoting peace.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who vehemently criticized Mr. Obama for signing the nuclear deal, called again this week for scrapping it or changing it to permanently ban production of nuclear weapons. Mr. Netanyahu said Iran, which has sent military aid to Syria, is undertaking a “campaign of conquest across the Middle East.”
In response, Mr. Rouhani said it was “reprehensible that the rogue Zionist regime that threatens regional and global security with its nuclear arsenal … has the audacity to preach to peaceful nations.”
Some allies of the U.S. have been urging Mr. Trump not to abandon the nuclear deal, which imposes limits on Iran’s nuclear research and requires international inspections. Some foreign leaders have expressed concern that withdrawing from an accord designed to prevent nuclear weapons would undermine any efforts to scale back North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development.
French President Emmanuel Macron said it would be a mistake to pull out of the Iranian agreement.
“We have to keep the 2015 agreement because it was a good one,” Mr. Macron told reporters.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters Wednesday that Moscow is concerned about Mr. Trump’s warnings about withdrawing from the deal.
Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir suggested that his country wants the agreement to be strengthened rather than abandoned. Iran is Saudi Arabia’s chief rival in the region.
“We believe that it must be strictly reinforced. Iran has not lived up to the terms of the agreement,” Mr. Jubeir told reporters. “We expect the international community to do whatever it takes to make sure Iran is in compliance with it.”
Seven senior Senate Democrats wrote to top Trump administration officials Wednesday, reminding them of their legal obligation to report to Congress on potential breaches of the Iranian nuclear deal, formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
The senators said a 2015 law “requires the president to provide information to Congress on any potentially significant Iranian breach or compliance concern related to the JCPOA within ten calendar days of receiving the information.”
“To date, the Senate has received no such notification and the administration has provided little public testimony to Congress on the status of Iranian compliance with the agreement,” they wrote to Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, Defense Secretary James Mattis, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Director of National Intelligence Daniel Coats.
The letter was signed by Sens. Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Jack Reed of Rhode Island, Maria Cantwell of Washington, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Mark R. Warner of Virginia.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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