Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Wednesday that US President Donald Trump was “lured” by his allies into abandoning the 2015 nuclear agreement.
Zarif said on Twitter that Trump’s national security adviser John Bolton and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had killed an earlier agreement in 2005 by insisting that Iran stop all uranium enrichment.
“Now they’ve lured @realdonaldtrump into killing #JCPOA (the 2015 nuclear deal) w/the same delusion,” Zarif added.
Trump pulled the US out of the deal last year, saying he wanted to negotiate a better one. Under the provisions of the accord, signatories provided Iran with economic relief in exchange for curbs on the country's nuclear program, but the latest US sanctions have highlighted the inability of the Europeans, as well as Russia and China, to keep up with their commitments.
Iran reacted recently by increasing its uranium enrichment activities.
Its moves — which it defends as permissible after the US withdrawal — are seen as a way to force the others to openly confront the sanctions.
France on Tuesday sent a top diplomat to Tehran to urge Iran to scale back its increased uranium enrichment.
Europe also called on Iran to return to complying with the terms of the unraveling nuclear deal "without delay."
France, Britain and Germany, who remain a part of the nuclear accord along with Russia and China, said they planned to convene a meeting of the signatories amid "deep concern that Iran is not meeting several of its commitments."
They said the meeting to address Iran's compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA as the deal is formally known, needed to be "convened urgently," but they did not say when that would happen.
"Iran has stated that it wants to remain within the JCPOA," the countries said in a statement. "It must act accordingly by reversing these activities and returning to full JCPOA compliance without delay."
