Iran’s Raisi says U.S. violated nuclear deal, EU failed to fulfil commitments

Iranian President-Elect Ebrahim Raisi said on Monday that the United States violated the 2015 nuclear deal and the European Union failed to fulfil its commitments.

Speaking in his first news conference since his victory in Friday’s election, he said the United States and the EU should fulfil their pledges under the deal, Reuters reported.

This comes after Western officials warned Tehran on Sunday that negotiations to revive its nuclear deal could not continue indefinitely, after the sides announced a break following the election of a new hardline president in Iran.

Negotiations have been ongoing in Vienna since April to work out how Iran and the United States can both return to compliance with the nuclear pact, which Washington abandoned in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump, and Iran subsequently violated, Reuters reported.

Sunday’s pause in the talks came after Raisi, a hardliner and fierce critic of the West, won Iran’s presidential election on Friday.

Raisi will take office in early August, replacing pragmatist Hassan Rouhani, under whom Tehran struck the deal agreeing to curbs to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions.