Iran would talk about changing the 2015 nuclear accord only if every concession it made were reconsidered, Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in an interview with the New York Times.
Zarif said that what the administration really wanted was to keep the Iranian concessions while trying to extract more from Iran — but with no new concessions from the United States or other parties. That kind of position, he said, contradicted the premise of any negotiated deal.
“By definition, a deal is not perfect, because in any deal you have to give and take,” he said, adding that otherwise you won’t have a deal.
He further dismissed the idea of an addendum to the agreement to address the Trump administration’s objections, an idea that American officials say has been floated within the administration as a possible diplomatic way forward.
"Why should we discuss an addendum?," Zarif said. "If you want to have an addendum, there has to be an addendum on everything."
US President Donald Trump has strongly hinted he is prepared to "decertify" Iran’s compliance with the deal, even while US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged that Iran is in “technical compliance.”
Zarif said those complaints were all beyond the scope of the agreement struck in July of 2015 and that the United States is "sending the wrong signal.”
