Iran Should Not Trust Babylon the Great

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Iran says US cannot be trusted to honor new nuclear deal
Minister insists fresh negotiations would be pointless without guarantees
By ASIA TIMES STAFF
NOVEMBER 23, 2018 3:58 AM (UTC+8
Tehran believes fresh nuclear talks with the US without guarantees it will not renege on any agreement made would be pointless, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday.
US President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in May, claiming that the agreement to restrict Iran’s nuclear work was a “disaster.”
Iran continues to abide by the terms of the agreement, and European nations also continue to support it and engage with Tehran.
However, Zarif insisted that without guarantees, the Trump administration could not be trusted.
“If we are to make an agreement with the United States, what is the guarantee that the agreement will last after the flight? You remember Canada?” he said, referring to Trump’s withdrawal of his signature from a G7 summit closing statement in June after his plane left Canada, the host country.
“How are we to be confident that the signature stays on the paper?” Zarif said at the MED Dialogues conference in Rome.
Comprehensive new US sanctions against Iran, which came into effect on November 5, have raised serious concerns about whether the agreement can survive.
– With reporting from Agence France-Presse