Iran should not withdraw from the landmark international nuclear monitoring agreement brokered two years ago, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has threatened to renege on the deal, which provided sanctions relief in return for Iran accepting inspections of its nuclear program, in the face of fresh U.S. sanctions.
“Regarding the statement of Iranian President Rouhani about the possible withdrawal of Tehran from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, I hope that this will not happen,” Lavrov said at a Moscow news conference.
On Tuesday, Rouhani said Tehran would quit from the deal if the U.S. continued to impose new sanctions.
“Iran will definitely return to a much more advanced state of the pre-negotiations era in a short time,” he said in a statement. “It is just a matter of hours or days.”
In recent weeks, the U.S. has imposed sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and human rights abuses.
Iran has denied that its missiles are designed to carry nuclear weapons and said they do not breach a UN resolution.
In a statement, Lavrov said the U.S. should not violate its obligations under the nuclear deal and added that Washington’s unilateral sanctions were “illegitimate” in principle.
The 2015 agreement between Iran, the U.S., Russia, China, the U.K., France and Germany lifted most sanctions on Iran while placing restrictions on nuclear development.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors the agreement, has repeatedly certified Iran’s compliance.