ROME: The head of Iran’s nuclear agency warned the United States on Tuesday against undermining the 2015 nuclear deal, saying international non-proliferation efforts as well as Washington’s international standing would suffer as a result.

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told an international conference on enhancing nuclear safety that Washington’s recent “delusionary negative postures do not augur well” for keeping the deal intact.

He said Iran didn’t want to see the deal unravel but that “much more is at stake for the entire international community than the national interests of Iran”.

US President Donald Trump is set to deliver a speech on Iran this week in which he is expected to decline to certify Iran’s compliance with the landmark 2015 agreement, referring it to Congress, and perhaps targeting the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard with new sanctions.

Salehi praised the progress that had been made since the 2015 deal, saying non-proliferation and disarmament efforts had benefited worldwide. He called it “simply too precious to be allowed to be undermined or weakened”.

Published in Dawn, October 11th, 2017