EU's appeasement of Trump will make JCPOA impotent: Iranian official Ali Akbar Velayati

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei

A senior Iranian official says the 2015 nuclear agreement should be honored in its current form, adding that the Islamic Republic will not accept a deal that harms the country.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said on Thursday that Iran will surely withdraw from the multilateral accord should the United States pull out of it.

"If the Americans attempt to violate the JCPOA, it is not clear whether the Islamic Republic will remain committed to its obligations and if they exit, Iran will definitely leave it, too," he said, using an acronym for the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Velayati said if the European countries question the solidity of the JCPOA and reinstate sanctions against Iran, which were lifted under the nuclear pact, they will make the deal "ineffective" as far as Iran's interests are concerned.

He also emphasized that the agreement should be implemented in its written form because otherwise Tehran will be entitled to retaliate.

Velayati said it would still be unacceptable for Iran if US President Donald Trump stuck to the deal at the cost of keeping sanctions in place, as demanded by the Europeans.

"This appeasement to Trump will practically make the JCPOA impotent and Iran will not accept a JCPOA that is to its detriment," Velayati said.

He also defended Iran's "legitimate" presence in the region, saying, "Every country has the right to be present in its own region and the Western Asia is our region."

Trump has been a vociferous critic of the Iran nuclear agreement, which was negotiated under his predecessor, Barack Obama. He has called the agreement the “worst deal ever” and even threatened to tear it up.

Back in January, Trump said he was extending the sanctions relief on Iran for the last time, giving the European signatories a May 12 deadline to fix what he claimed “flaws” in the agreement or he would refuse to waive those bans.

Iran insists there is no way it will renegotiate the nuclear pact, which was endorsed by UN Security Council Resolution 2231 in 2015.