Rouhani warns Iran can quit nuclear deal over new US sanctions

Iran could abandon the 2015 nuclear agreement reached with world powers within hours if the US keeps on imposing new sanctions, warned President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday.         

In a speech to parliament broadcast live on state TV, he also hit out at US counterpart Donald Trump saying that he had shown the world that Washington was "not a good partner."       

"If America wants to go back to the experience (of imposing sanctions), Iran would certainly return in a short time  –  not a week or a month but within hours  –  to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations," Rouhani said.  

The Iranian president's comments come after Tehran carried out missile tests and strikes, and Washington imposed new sanctions – with each accusing the other of violating the spirit of the agreement.

"Too big to fail"

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that the new sanctions were unrelated to the Iran nuclear deal which must not become "too big to fail."

"Iran cannot be allowed to use the nuclear deal to hold the world hostage ... The nuclear deal must not become 'too big to fail'," Haley said in a statement on Tuesday.

Haley said that Iran must be held responsible for "its missile launches, support for terrorism, disregard for human rights, and violations of UN Security Council resolutions."

Iran in its 2015 deal with the US, Russia, China and three European powers had agreed to curb its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of most sanctions.

Rouhani warned that Iran was ready to walk out of the agreement if Washington persisted.

"Those who try to return to the language of threats and sanctions are prisoners of their past delusions," he said.

Rouhani said Iran did prefer to stick with the nuclear deal, which he called "a model of victory for peace and diplomacy over war and unilateralism” but that this was not the "only option."

The US then imposed unilateral sanctions saying Iran's ballistic missile tests violated a UN resolution, which had endorsed the nuclear deal and called upon Tehran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such technology.

It stopped short of explicitly barring such activity.

Iran denies its missile development breaches the resolution, saying its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.

"The world has clearly seen that under Trump, America has ignored international agreements and, in addition to undermining the (nuclear deal), has broken its word on the Paris agreement and the Cuba accord ... and that the US is not a good partner or a reliable negotiator," Rouhani said.

Trump said last week that he did not believe that Iran was living up to the spirit of the nuclear deal.