“The nuclear deal is the nuclear deal,” said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in response to comments by both US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House a day earlier in which Macron suggested that changes could be made to (or alongside) a multi-lateral nuclear agreement in order to save it from sabotage by the Trump administration.
In a televised speech in Iran on Wednesday, Rouhani said that he spoke with Macron at length — presumably before Tuesday’s events in Washington, DC — and told the French president “explicitly that we will not add anything to the deal or remove anything from it, even one sentence.”
Not sparing Trump direct rebuke, Rouhani blasted the US president as unqualified for his position, declaring: “You have no clue about politics, no clue about the law or international treaties. You are just a businessman, a tradesman. You are a tower builder. How is he going to pass judgment on international issues?”
Rouhani warned that Trump and Macron cannot simply re-write a deal that was agreed to by seven parties. “Who allowed you to do that?” the Iranian president asked. “For what? With what right?”
He continued by saying that by agreeing to the the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Program of Action (JCPOA) — and by upholding all their commitments to it — Iran had “shown goodwill to the world.” And still, Rouhani reaffirmed — as Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javar Zarif has also said plainly to US news outlets in recent days — that with or without the deal his country will “not seek to acquire weapons of mass destruction.”
Rouhani said that as long Iran’s interests are “guaranteed we will remain in the deal, whether the US remains or not.” But, he added, that “if our benefits are not guaranteed, we will not remain in the deal, no matter what the circumstances are.”
Macron’s new proposal included elements suggesting that further actions could be taken to curb Iran’s military power and regional influence, though it remained unclear exactly what they would mean. Macron’s offer, the Guardian reported, “seemed calculated to appease the [Trump’s] discontent with the current agreement, the [JCPOA] by proposing a broader initiative to tackle other elements of Iran’s challenge in the region, particularly its ballistic missile program, and its military role in Syria.”
Meanwhile, critics of Trump’s threat to torpedo the international agreement continue to voice warnings that doing so puts the US and Iran on a direct path to war.
“Donald Trump is setting up a dangerous catch-22 with Iran,” warned Trita Parsi, president of the National American-Iranian Council, in a statement on Tuesday. “Trump is threatening war if Iran restarts nuclear activities on one hand while he unravels the very agreement that prevents a nuclear-armed Iran on the other. This is more than a war of words, Donald Trump is setting us up for a very real military conflict.”
Macron and Europe seem “willing to bend over backwards to save the nuclear deal and prevent catastrophe,” added Parsi. “When our closest allies express alarm in unison, we should listen. Trump should quit while he is ahead and reaffirm the US commitment to the JCPOA before it is too late. The alternative would be an isolated America, an unchecked Iranian nuclear program, and an escalation towards war.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 242 new monthly donors in the next 2 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy