IRGC Commander Says Tehran Ready for Most Dangerous Scenarios

“Today, Iran has the upper hand in the equations and our enemies including the US, the Zionist regime (Israel) and their puppet regimes in the region should know that the Iranian nation has prepared itself for the most dangerous scenarios of threats,” Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the IRGC’s second-in-command, said on Tuesday.

In a post on his Twitter account, Trump said he would announce whether Washington will exit the Iran nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), on Tuesday.

“The United States does not need John Kerry’s possibly illegal Shadow Diplomacy on the very badly negotiated Iran Deal.  He was the one that created this MESS in the first place,” he tweeted to point the finger at the former secretary of state.

The IRGC commander further said at the end of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in the 1980s, enemies started an all-out war against the Islamic Republic in economic and political fields.

However, the Iranian nation proved that it cannot be defeated and is capable of protecting the country in the face of the enemies, Salami added.

He emphasized that Iran is currently a superpower in the region and said the Iranian people are not afraid of the US sanctions or its military aggression.

Under the JCPOA, reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany under Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran.

President Trump, a long-time critic of the JCPOA, has repeatedly threatened to abrogate the nuclear agreement by not extending sanctions waivers when they expire, if the European signatories to the deal — Britain, France and Germany — do not “fix” its “terrible flaws.”

Other signatories to the JCPOA, as well as the UN and the European Union, which moderated the talks in the lead-up to the agreement, have warned Washington against trying to sabotage it. They call it a pillar of regional and international peace and stability, and a multilateral pact, which cannot be simply terminated by a single party.

Salami’s comments came a day after Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Mohammad Baqeri warned that the Islamic Republic would give a proportionate response to the enemy’s slightest aggression against the country.

“If the enemy casts a covetous eye on our interests or conducts [even] a slight act of aggression, the Islamic Republic will give an appropriate response at an appropriate time,” Baqeri said while visiting ground, aviation and armored units of the Iranian Army in the southwestern Khuzestan Province.

US will have to recognize Iranians’ rights under worse circumstances if it quits JCPOA: Zarif

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the United States will eventually have to recognize the Iranian nation’s rights if it pulls out of the JCPOA.

“If Trump makes a mistake and scuppers the JCPOA as an international achievement, he will definitely be forced to recognize the Iranian people’s rights under worse conditions,” Zarif added.

He emphasized that this is a fact that the US would never be able to reach an agreement like the JCPOA “because they believe that Iran entered [nuclear] negotiations in very bad conditions.”

Iran will not remain ‘passive’ if Trump quits nuclear deal: Shamkhani

Meanwhile, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said Iran would not be passive if the US president withdraws from the landmark nuclear deal.

“Certainly, it will not be in the Americans’ interests if the JCPOA collapses due to their offensive,” Shamkhani added.

Iran will decide based on national interests: Araqchi

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said Iran would make a decision following a possible US exit from the nuclear accord based on its own national interests.

“Iran is closely monitoring stance of the US and European sides and will make an appropriate decision only based on the country’s interests and absolute rights of the Iranian nation in reaction to the US measures,” Araqchi said in a meeting with envoys from France, Britain, Germany and the European Union in Brussels.

US never fulfilled Iran nuclear deal obligations: Parliament speaker

Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani also said on Tuesday that the United States has never fulfilled its obligations under the multilateral nuclear agreement.

“The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has presented 10 reports verifying that Iran has implemented its commitments,” Larijani said.

“But the Americans have not fulfilled their obligations and created lack of trust in the international scene,” he added.

Since the JCPOA Implementation Day, the IAEA has been monitoring Iran’s compliance with its nuclear-related commitments under the nuclear deal and has consistently verified the Islamic Republic’s compliance.

The UN’s nuclear agency on May 1 reiterated that it has “no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009,” citing its assessments from 2015.

In a statement, a spokesman for the IAEA referred to the so-called possible military dimensions (PMD) case in Iran’s nuclear program, saying that the agency’s Board of Governors had “declared that its consideration of this issue was closed” after it was presented with a report in December 2015.

Larijani further emphasized that the JCPOA is not an agreement reached between two countries and noted that the UN Security Council has endorsed the “international pact.”

The Iranian parliament speaker said European countries also agree that the US has failed to remain committed to its obligations, adding, “Therefore, it seems you should speak with the Americans only with the language of force and there is no other solution.”

A few hours before Trump’s announcement, a group of Iranian lawmakers wrote a letter to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, stressing that they will not allow the US to impose its illegitimate demands on Iran.

The Iranian lawmakers expressed their lack of trust in the US, noting that they will oblige the executive branch to respond “fiercely” if the US decides to ignore Iran’s rights.

The parliamentarians expressed gratitude to the government of President Hassan Rouhani for deciding not to renegotiate a new deal and stressed that Tehran must make the enemy regret its actions if it fails to honor its commitments under the JCPOA.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday that any possible move by the United States to withdraw from the nuclear deal with Iran would show how isolated the US is among the international community.

Speaking to Iranian Parliament’s official news agency, ICANA, Zarif said, “The US exit from the JCPOA will show that the Americans are isolated and are no longer trustworthy for international interactions.”