Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a Saturday meeting of Asian leaders that the country will scale back compliance with its commitments under the 2015 nuclear agreement unless it sees "positive signals" from other signatories. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI |
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June 15 (UPI) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned the country will further scale back its compliance with the nuclear deal unless it receives "positive signals" from other signatories.
Rouhani told Russian, Chinese and other leaders at the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia that it would continue to scale back its compliance with commitments outlined in the nuclear deal unless "other countries contribute to the survival of this important agreement."
Rouhani did not specifically state at the conference in Tajikistan what "positive signals" he is seeking from the other signatories on the deal, which include Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union.
He also did not say what actions Iran would take, but the country's government said in May that it would begin enriching uranium at a higher level than allowed by the agreement unless the other signatories on the deal took steps within 60 days to protect Iran's economy from U.S. sanctions.
The United States withdrew from the nuclear agreement and tightened sanctions against Iran in May 2018.
Rouhani's remarks came one day after Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi denied responsibility for a pair of Thursday attacks on oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman.
The United States released a video that officials said depicted an Iranian naval boat removing an unexploded mine from one of the boats. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the attacks were a "blatant assault" that threatened international peace and represented an unacceptable escalation by Iran.
"The suspicious nature of incidents for oil tanker is not a joke," Mousavi said. "It is not only not funny, but it is also worrying and alarming. It seems that for Mr. Pompeo and other American statesmen, accusing Iran in the suspicious and unfortunate incident for tankers is the most convenient and simplistic."
