A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if U.S. President Donald Trump scraps the nuclear accord Iran signed with world powers in 2015.
Mr. Trump has said that unless European allies fix what he has called “terrible flaws” in the accord by May 12, he will restore U.S. economic sanctions on Iran, which would be a severe blow to the pact.
In a news conference broadcast on state television, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Shamkhani, said the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran was ready for some “surprising actions” if the nuclear deal was scrapped.
Answering a question about the possibility of Tehran withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Mr. Shamkhani said: “This is one of three options that we are considering.”
Iran has been a non-nuclear-weapon state party to the NPT since 1970.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani also warned Mr. Trump on Tuesday to stay in the nuclear deal or face “severe consequences”.
Iran has said it will ramp up its nuclear programme if the deal collapses.
In a UN non-proliferation conference in Geneva, Russia and China submitted a draft statement expressing “unwavering ”support” for the Iran nuclear accord and said they hoped it would receive broad backing.
