Russia blames US for Iran’s withdrawal from parts of nuclear deal

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday knocked the Trump administration after Iran’s government announced that it would cease honoring parts of the 2015 nuclear agreement with the U.S. unless it received protection from U.S. sanctions.

Reuters reported that Russia’s foreign ministry issued a statement blaming President Trump for “the consequences of unthought-out steps” he had supposedly taken related to Iran after Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani announced that his country would resume some uranium enrichment.

{mosads}“President Putin has repeatedly spoken of the consequences of unthought-out steps regarding Iran and by that I mean the decision taken by Washington [to abandon the Iran deal],” Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters. 

Trump pulled the United States out of the multination pact with Iran in May 2018, calling the deal “a horrible one-sided deal that should have never, ever been made.”

The other nations in the pact sharply criticized Trump for the move and said it would encourage Iran to break the pact.

“Now we are seeing those consequences are starting to happen,” Peskov reportedly added on Wednesday.

Peskov’s statement came hours after Rouhani vowed to resume nuclear enrichment processes unless Russia, China and three European countries remaining in the agreement with Iran worked together and shielded the country’s economy from damaging U.S. sanctions reimposed last year.

Rouhani promised Wednesday that Iran would cease enrichment if a deal was made to block the sanctions’ effects from reaching Iran, according to Reuters.

“If the five countries came to the negotiating table and we reached an agreement, and if they could protect our interests in the oil and banking sectors, we will go back to square one,” Rouhani reportedly said.

“The Iranian people and the world should know that today is not the end of the [Iran deal],” he added, according to Reuters. “These are actions in line with the [agreement].”

The White House did not immediately return a request for comment on Wednesday’s announcement.