In an interview with CBC News in Iran, AEOI chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who is also vice-president, said he viewed the absence of a mention of Iran in Trump's inaugural speech as "positive."
He also dismissed the new US administration's intention to develop a "state of the art" missile defence system to stave off attacks from North Korea and Iran.
"The United States - it's more than 10,000 miles [16,000 kilometres] away from Iran, and we have never intended to manufacture missiles that would go that far," Salehi said.
He underlined that the nuclear deal is Iran's central concern. Iran has watched warily as Trump repeatedly cast doubt on the deal, under which tough sanctions were lifted a year ago this month.
In the dying days of his presidency, Barack Obama insisted the deal brought "significant, concrete results in making the United States and the world a safer place."
Last week, he was more vague about his plans, but insisted the deal was still "one of the dumbest" he'd ever seen.
Salehi is a key architect of the deal that Trump wants to tear up, and if that happens, Iran will "act appropriately," he said.
"We did once before … that deal didn't work and Iran was able to go back to its nuclear activities with high speed," he added. "We can very easily snap back and go back … not only to where we were, but a much higher position technologically speaking."
Salehi says he watched the inauguration with the expectation that Trump would mention Iran or its nuclear deal. But he did not raise either.
LR/PR
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