Donald Trump‘s resounding election victory could put the United States at odds with Iran over the nuclear deal forged between the Islamic Republic and world powers in July last year, Reuters reports.
The so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was one of Trump’s pet foreign policy topics over the course of his election campaign. He initially claimed that he would “dismantle” the UN-ratified agreement, before softening his tone and saying that would instead renegotiate and aggressively enforce the terms.
READ MORE: After hard negotiation, historic Iran nuclear deal reached
The deal requires that Iran scale down its stash of nuclear centrifuges by two-thirds, limit its level of uranium enrichment below the threshold required for making bomb-grade material and reduce its enriched uranium stockpile, while submitting to international inspectors.
In exchange for its compliance, Iran would be rewarded via a phased easing of international sanctions that include financial restrictions on its banks, and the freezing of over $100 billion of overseas assets.
Trump repeatedly criticized the deal during his election campaign, saying that Iran couldn’t be trusted to live up to its share of the bargain and that the deal threatened the safety and security of the United States and Israel.
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During the second presidential debate with Democrat adversary Hillary Clinton, Trump labeled the deal “one of the worst deals ever made by any country in history.”
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But Iran’s leaders said Wednesday that Trump will have no choice but to adhere to the terms of the deal. President Hassan Rouhani said that “the deal cannot be overturned by a single government,” before adding that the results of the election confirmed that the United States’ standing in the court of global opinion was falling.
“The U.S. vote results indicate tension and domestic instability, which will remain in place as much time is needed to resolve these internal differences and problems,” he told his cabinet members in Tehran according to Iran’s semi-official news agency Fars.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif echoed Rouhani’s remarks in comments made in a joint press conference with Romanian counterpart Lazar Comanescu in Bucharest. Zarif said that the president-elect “should gather a correct understanding of the realities of the world and our region, and face them realistically and pragmatically.”
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The spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi sounded an even more bullish tone.
“The Americans seem to dislike the Islamic Republic of Iran’s position, situation, capability and power,” he told Fars.
“But Iran imposes and dictates those things to them and they are forced to accept it, even if it is bitter for them.”
— With files from Reuters and the Canadian Press
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