Tehran, Iran, July 30
By Mehdi Sepahvand – Trend:
Iran will stay committed to the nuclear deal, aka Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), as long as it enables the country to meet its interests, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said.
Araqchi, who is Iran’s head at a joint committee with the six powers party to the JCPOA to oversee the implementation of the deal, made the remark in an interview with IRIB TV July 29.
“The recent legislature of the American Congress is a new law and speaks new things, but nothing new has happened. It is in fact the continuation of U.S. enmity,” the diplomat said.
The United States imposed sanctions on Friday on six subsidiaries of a company key to Iran's ballistic missile program, citing continued "provocative actions" like Tehran's launch of a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit.
Araqchi went on to refute the idea that the JCPOA should have acted as a conciliatory factor between Iran and the US.
He added that Iran will give some “strong response” to the US for its new legislature posing sanctions on Iran.
The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on six Iranian firms owned or controlled by the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The move enables the U.S. government to block any company property under its jurisdiction and prevents U.S. citizens from doing business with the firms.
Washington's ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, said the Trump administration would continue to impose consequences on Iran until it complied fully with U.N. resolutions.