Iran's President Hassan Rouhani warned that Iran could abandon its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers within hours if the United States keeps on imposing new sanctions.
In a speech to parliament, he also hit out at US counterpart Donald Trump saying that he had shown the world that Washington was "not a good partner".
Rouhani warned that Iran was ready to walk out of the deal, which saw the lifting of most international sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme, if Washington persisted.
"The failed experience of sanctions and coercion brought their previous administrations to the negotiating table," Rouhani said in the televised address.
"If they want to go back to that experience, definitely in a short time - not weeks or months, but in the scale of hours and days - we will return to our previous situation very much more stronger," the AFP cited him as saying.
Rouhani said Trump had shown he was an unreliable partner not just for Iran but for US allies.
"In recent months, the world has witnessed that the US, in addition to its constant and repetitive breaking of its promises in the JCPOA, has ignored several other global agreements and shown its allies that the US is neither a good partner nor a reliable negotiating party," the President added.
The senior research fellow of the Department of Near and Middle East at the Institute for Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Lana Ravandi-Fadai, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that, indeed, Iran may quit a nuclear deal. "Not long ago, there was an extraordinary meeting of the Expediency Discernment Council to prepare a response to the latest sanctions against Iran, Russia and the DPRK, and I would not be surprised if Iran is really ready to break the deal," she said.
Lana Ravandi-Fadai drew attention to the fact that first of all the authorities are being pushed to break the nuclear deal by the conservatives. "I mean the ultra-conservative wing, which has always been against the nuclear deal, moreover, they were opposing Hassan Rouhani because of it. The Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has recently been taking a more cautious policy and I think he will do what the majority wants," the orientalist stressed.
If the situation comes to a standstill, then Hassan Rouhani may agree to abandon the JCPOA. "He does not support it, but he can agree with despair. Especially if the Expediency Discernment Council has already decided, he will have no other choice. Most likely, Tehran has already discussed and weighed all the consequences. It means that if they do it, they are confident about it and believe that the US leadership in the person of Trump will not take any crazy decisions," Lana Ravandi-Fadai predicts.
