JCPOA Could Hold without US: Kerry
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Former US Secretary of State John Kerry said the Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), could hold even if Donald Trump repeals it.
Kerry, however, warned that imposing new economic sanctions against Tehran could be dangerous.
“It doesn’t make sense, folks, to risk a step that gets us nothing,” he said of calls to impose stricter sanctions on Iran.
New sanctions could send a message to the Iranian people that there is no gain for them in the 2015 nuclear deal, he said, according to AP.
“If we become super provocative in ways that show the Iranian people there has been no advantage to this, that there is no gain, and our bellicosity is pushing them into a corner, that’s dangerous and that could bring a very different result,” said Kerry, who spoke in San Francisco Monday at a fundraiser for Ploughshares Fund, an organization that works to reduce the threats posed by nuclear weapons.
Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) implemented the landmark agreement in January 2016.
During his presidential campaign, Trump promised to renegotiate or leave the nuclear accord, which he referred to as a “disaster” and “the worst deal ever negotiated.”
After taking office, too, Trump said it was “possible” that the US would not remain in the nuclear deal.
“I believe they have broken the spirit of the agreement,” the US president claimed in April. “There is a spirit to agreements, and they have broken it.”
In May, the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee voted 18-3 in favor of legislation that would authorize Trump to impose mandatory sanctions on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Congressional Republican leadership, who opposed the JCPOA from the start, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have said they support new sanctions for Iran even if the deal stays in place.
