Iran to stop Additional Protocol if JCPOA nixed: Salehi

The head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says the Islamic Republic will stop implementing the Non-Proliferation Treaty’s (NPT) Additional Protocol if the nuclear agreement is nixed.

“If the JCPOA collapses, we will suspend the implementation of the Additional Protocol because we are now implementing it voluntarily and it has not been approved by the parliament,” Ali Akbar Salehi said in an interview on Sunday, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action as the nuclear deal is officially called.

He also stressed that Iran is committed to the inspections and meets its obligations only under the JCPOA and not beyond that framework.

Salehi further said that returning Iran’s nuclear program to the level before the JCPOA took “hours” for some activities while it was a matter of days or several months for some other activities and in a particular case one year and a few months.

“If one day authorities see that the JCPOA has no more benefits for our country and decide to resume the 20-percent enrichment [of uranium] at Fordow [facility], we can begin it in four days,” he added.

Salehi also condemned US President Donald Trump’s recent anti-Iran speech, saying his comments were “disgusting and rude.”

On Friday, the US president gave a speech filled with anti-Iran insults. He said he would not certify Iran’s compliance with the terms of the nuclear accord under a domestic American law.

Trump threatened to “terminate” the JCPOA if he could not “reach a solution working with Congress and our allies” to change it.

He also claimed that the Iranian government had “intimidated international inspectors into not using the full inspection authorities that the agreement calls for.”

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the remarks of the American businessman-turned-politician as a “pile of delusional allegations.”

Additionally, Yukiya Amano, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reconfirmed in a statement after Trump’s speech that Iran was fully implementing its commitments under the nuclear deal.

On October 9, Amano met with Salehi and the Iranian official that political developments, particularly in the US, would not influence the IAEA’s reporting on the Islamic Republic.

The JCPOA was reached between Iran and the P5+1 countries — namely the US, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany — in July 2015 and took effect in January 2016. Under the deal, Iran undertook to apply certain limits to its nuclear program in exchange for the termination of all nuclear-related sanctions against Tehran.