US refusal to certify JCPOA will harm its credibility: Academic

US President Donald Trump is expected to announce his decision on the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement ahead of October 15 deadline amid speculations that he may “decertify” the deal, which has been endorsed by the United Nations Security Council as an international accord. Press TV has asked Mohammad Marandi, a professor at the University of Tehran, and William Morris, secretary general of Next Century Foundation from London, about the consequences of America’s reneging on its commitment to the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Marandi said US attempts to ignore its obligations under the nuclear deal will harm America’s reliability when it comes to having any kind of agreement with the country.

The damage to the nuclear deal is something that “the United States should be more worried about than Iran at this stage, because the United States loses credibility across the globe,” the academic said on Thursday night.

The way that the American authorities react to the nuclear deal is going to force countries to rethink negotiating with the United States, because Washington is not abiding by its commitments, he said.

“The North Korean state will look at what is going on right now and decide that it is best not to negotiate with the United States.”

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany signed the nuclear agreement on July 14, 2015 and started implementing it on January 16, 2016.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limitations on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran, but both the Obama and Trump administrations did not adhere to their commitments under the deal.

“In future, there is no reason why the Iranians should negotiate with the United States over anything,” because there is no assurance that the Americans would abide by their commitments, Marandi said.

If Trump refuses to certify the JCPOA, US Congress has 60 days to decide whether to put sanctions back on the Islamic Republic.

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Morris, the other guest on the show, said the agreement is not going to be changed by the failure of President Trump to certify the Iran nuclear deal.

“Decertification does not mean the end of the agreement of course. The agreement goes on unless Congress starts to mess things up,” the commentator added.

The refusal to certify the deal is just an act of moral cowardice by President Trump, which shows “he has certainly strong influence from Israel and Israel has always been nervous about the Iran nuclear deal,” Morris said. 

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