Zarif: Letting US destroy Iran nuclear deal would be return to law of jungle

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says allowing the US to go to the full length of its ill-intentioned campaign to destroy the historic 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers promises return to the law of jungle.

Zarif made the remarks in an article he wrote in Le Monde, which the French paper published on Wednesday.

Through its obdurate campaign to bring about the total annihilation of the agreement, the United States is threatening to devastate what is left of multilateralism and the international law, he wrote.

Known officially as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement was concluded between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries in Vienna in 2015, which at that time included the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China plus Germany.

Zarif reminded that the deal was made to address all concerns regarding “the exclusively peaceful nature of our nuclear program,” while freeing the Iranian people from inhumane and unjust sanctions.

In May 2018, however, US President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the deal and later re-imposed the sanctions that the deal had lifted. The US’ intransigence flew in the face of the fact that the accord has been ratified by the United Nations Security Council in the form of its Resolution 2231.

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The Iranian administration rejects Trump’s claims that he will strike a deal with Iran only weeks after re-election as a mere ploy to win more votes.

Ever since, the US has also been threatening other countries into toeing its sanction line and abandoning their legal trade with Iran.

Zarif said in his article that as a result of the US' behavior, Iran has been the target of “the most vicious and indiscriminate sanctions.”

‘US punishing all those who abide by law’

The US’ "inflexibility and unpredictability" have nothing to do with the precepts of the “game theory,” in which players are expected to take rational decisions, Zarif said, adding that Washington is just after punishing any party, which adheres to the international law.

“Whether in the case of its domestic mismanagement of COVID-19 or the undermining of peace and stability abroad, the current administration in Washington has no real plans other than to blindly attack all those who defend the rule of law,” the article read.

The top diplomat concluded that with its current behavior, the United States is just shying away from offering any prospect for the future of the global community, and warned that it is “neither desirable nor viable” to allow Washington a free hand in its actions.

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