Iran's FM: U.S. "unreliable" as Trump considers withdrawing from nuclear deal

WASHINGTON, Sept 25 (KUNA) -- Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said Sunday that the U.S. is "unreliable" as U.S. President Donald Trump considers withdrawing from the nuclear deal reached with his country and six world powers in 2015.
Speaking to CNN, Zarif said "I think what the United States is doing, in addition to being unpredictable, which might sometimes work, is proving that it is unreliable because the United States needs to participate in many international agreements." He added that the U.S. is a "major power," and that it "engages in international negotiations, becomes party to international agreements, either through bilateral accords or through multilateral accords or through Security Council resolutions." He stressed that the deal "is not a bilateral agreement. It's not even a multilateral treaty. It's Security Council resolution and the United States is a permanent member of the Security Council." "What is important for the international community is to be able to rely on the words of the United States as a negotiating partner," he stressed, and that "if the world cannot rely on the words of the United States as a negotiating partner then nobody will negotiate with the United States because they know that the United States, at the end of the day, would use this famous expression, what's mine is mine and what's yours is negotiable." The Iranian Foreign Minister affirmed that his country will "look at the outcome of this process and will consider its options." He affirmed that Iran "has a number of options which include walking away from the deal and going back with greater speed with its nuclear program, which will remain peaceful, but which will not address and accept the limitations that we voluntarily accepted over our nuclear program." "We will need to determine for ourselves, at the appropriate time what are our national interests, and we will act according to our national interests. It is important to be able to have a predictable international environment," he remarked. (end) si.tg