Iran's President Hassan Rouhani declared victory over the United States, two days after U.S. President Donald Trump extended the waiver on Iran nuclear sanctions, thus keeping the nuclear deal signed in 2015 alive.
"The American administration has failed to undermine the nuclear deal," gloated Rouhani on state television, according to Reuters. "Trump, despite his repeated efforts, has failed to undermine the accord ... The deal is a long-lasting victory for Iran."
On Friday Trump reluctantly extended sanctions relief on Iran. Senior officials in the administration, however, said that this will be the "last time" Trump waives the sanctions unless the United States and its European allies can find a way to remove the loopholes in the nuclear deal within the next four months.
“He intends to work with our European partners on some kind of follow-on agreement that enshrines certain triggers that the Iranian regime cannot exceed related to ballistic missiles, related to nuclear breakout period... to inspection and that would have no sunset clause,” said the officials, according to The Hill.
In addition to extending the sanctions relief, Trump on Friday also slapped new sanctions on 14 Iranian corporations and individuals connected to Iran’s ballistic missile. The move caused an explosion of belligerence from top Iranian officials, who swore to keep Iran's ballistic missile program in place.
"Ballistic capability is the only deterrent against enemy threats in the situation that the Islamic Republic of Iran has agreed to have no nuclear weapons and to use no weapons of mass destruction such as chemical and biological weapons because it is totally against the use of weapons of mass destruction" said the chairman of the Iranian Parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has stressed that Iran will continue to produce missiles for its defense and does not consider that a violation of international agreements
Trump had faced a Friday deadline to decide whether to reimpose economic sanctions on Iran that were suspended as part of the 2015 nuclear agreement, after refusing to certifyIran was in compliance with the deal in October.
The president has repeatedly criticized the Iran deal, one of his predecessor’s Barack Obama’s signature foreign policy achievements, as the worst ever negotiated by the U.S.
