Speaking in an exclusive interview with Lester Holt of NBC News on Tuesday in New York, just before Trump delivered a hostile speech before the United Nations General Assembly, President Hassan Rouhani said that if President Donald Trump withdraws from the 2015 nuclear deal, "no one will trust America again" and that Iran could then resume work on expanding its nuclear capabilities.
"The exiting of the United States from such an agreement would carry a high cost, meaning that subsequent to such an action by the United States of America, no one will trust America again," Rouhani clarified his Monday remarks to CNN where he said US would pay a high price if Trump ended the nuclear deal.
He went on to add, "every word was analyzed many times by countries involved before its ratification, so if the United States were to not adhere to the commitments and trample upon this agreement, this will mean that it will carry with it the lack of subsequent trust from countries towards the United States because the greatest capital that any country has is trust and credibility."
Asked if Iran would continue to abide by the deal if the United State withdrew, President Rouhani said Iran’s commitments "would no longer exist" and it would be free to pursue a new path.
"One of the options and choices were one of our counterparts not to remain in the current framework would be to go back to previous activities," Rouhani said. "This is one option. And that's not difficult. We can easily go back to previous conditions if counterparts were to not live up to their commitments. But you do know fairly well that Iran will not be the initiator of this return to that path,” he said.
But he stressed that Iran would resume "peace activities only," saying the Islamic Republic had no intention of leaving the agreement.
"So we will never go towards production of nuclear weapons, just as in the past we never intended to go towards that path nor did we ever. It has always been peaceful,” he said.
Rouhani defended Iran's use of ballistic missiles, saying that it fell outside the nuclear agreement and that his country would never sacrifice its "defensive missile capabilities."
He also complained that the Trump administration was lumping Iran in with North Korea by describing both countries as nuclear threats.
"We wish to have nuclear energy for peaceful uses just as today, in Arak, there is collaboration between US, China and Iran for the completion of the power plant in Arak," Rouhani said.
MS