Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says Washington will pay a high price if US President Donald Trump carries out his threats to scrap the historic nuclear deal reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015.
“Leaving such an agreement would carry a high cost for the United States of America,” Rouhani said in an exclusive interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in New York on Monday.
“I do not believe Americans would be willing to pay such a high price for something that will be useless for them,” he added.
However, Rouhani warned that such an action “will generally decrease and chip away at international trust placed in the Unites States of America."
Rouhani made the remarks amid growing concerns about the future of the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was signed by Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China – plus Germany on July 14, 2015 and went into effect on January 16, 2016.
Tensions have risen between Tehran and Washington since Trump entered the Oval Office, with each side accusing the other of failing to honor the spirit of the JCPOA.
The United State, which is a party to the landmark nuclear agreement, seems to be laying out a case for abandoning it.