We call on partners to block ‘Iran's path to nuclear weapon’: Trump

Rasa - US President Donald Trump has once again accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons despite confirmations by the United Nations’ atomic agency that Tehran complies with the 2015 nuclear deal.

News ID: 436050

Date: 27 January 2018 - 21:15

RNA - Trump made the remarks on Friday in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he declared “America is open for business” despite his railing against “globalism” and free trade in the past.

“My administration is proud to have led historic efforts at the United Nations Security Council and all around the world to unite all civilized nations in our campaign of maximum pressure to de-nuke the Korean peninsula,” he said.

Trump also called on world countries to block what he called Iran’s “path to a nuclear weapon.”

“We continue to call on partners to confront Iran's support for terrorists and block Iran's path to a nuclear weapon,” he continued.

Trump, whose country has thousands of nuclear weapons, has often made unfounded accusations that Iran has been seeking to develop nuclear weapons. Tehran has strongly denied the allegations.

Trump has repeatedly denounced the landmark nuclear accord. During his presidential election campaign, he threatened to shred the deal. He has been desperately trying to undo the nuclear agreement with Iran, which restricts his ability to pursue harsher policies against the Islamic Republic.

Trump's anti-Iran rhetoric comes as the longstanding Western dispute over Tehran's nuclear program was settled after the conclusion of a landmark nuclear agreement in 2015.

UN Security Council Resolution 2231 also endorsed the nuclear deal, which went into effect in January 2016.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has also confirmed Iran's commitment to the terms of the nuclear agreement, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- plus Germany started implementing the JCPOA on January 16, 2016.

Trump has recently undermined the multilateral deal by introducing new rounds of sanctions against Iran.

‘America is open for business’

Elsewhere in his remarks in Davos, Trump said, “America is open for business and we are competitive once again.”

“As president of the United States I will always put America first,” he said. “But America first does not mean America alone. When the United States grows, so does the world.”

“America is open for business and we are competitive once again,” he also said.

Trump, however, criticized China for its alleged theft of intellectual property and practice of forcing American companies to turn over their intellectual property to do business there.

"We cannot have free and open trade if some countries exploit the system at the expense of others,” he said. “We support free trade, but it needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal.”

‘Almost 100% of territory regained from Daesh’

Trump also claimed that US-led coalition forces had regained almost 100 percent of territory occupied by the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.

"The coalition to defeat ISIS (Daesh) has retaken almost 100 percent of the territory once held by these killers in Iraq and Syria," he said.

"There is still more fighting and work to be done and to consolidate our gains,” he added.

On Thursday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US and Saudi Arabia cannot alter the facts on the ground about their sponsorship of Daesh and Iran's role in defeating the terrorist group.

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