Iran rejects Trump’s demand for changes to nuclear deal

Bitter Abbas to Trump: We reject your peace ‘deal of the century’
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PA president categorically dismisses US president's proposal before it has even been presented
By DOV LIEBER
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Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (C) speaks during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 14, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (C) speaks during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah on January 14, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / ABBAS MOMANI)
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday said a peace plan being worked on by US President Donald Trump insulted the Palestinians, calling it a slap in the face, and said the Palestinians would not accept any part of it.

“We told Trump we will not accept his project, the ‘deal of the century,’ which has become the ‘slap of the century,’” said Abbas, expressing Palestinian anger over the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

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“We do not take instructions from anyone, and say ‘no’ to anyone if it is about our destiny, our cause, our country and our people… 1,000 times no,'” he said, opening a meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Council in Ramallah.

The meeting, the first in two years, was called to discuss the Palestinian reaction to Trump’s December 6 speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, in which the US president said his decision merely recognized the reality that Jerusalem already serves as Israel’s capital and was not meant to prejudge the final borders of the city.

After the Trump declaration, Abbas declared that the US could no longer serve as a peacebroker, and instituted a boycott of the Trump administration, canceling a planned meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence and refusing to meet with US peace envoy Jason Greenblatt.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas gestures during a press conference with the French president, following a meeting at the Elysee presidential palace in Paris on December 22, 2017. (AFP Photo/Pool/Francois Mori)
Trump’s move was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by leaders across much of the Israeli political spectrum, while enraging Palestinians and prompting condemnations worldwide.

Abbas also said on Sunday that Israel had “ended” the landmark Oslo peace accords of the 1990s with its actions.

“I am saying that Oslo, there is no Oslo,” he said at the start of the meeting. “Israel ended Oslo,” Abbas said, adding that the meeting must take decisions on how to move forward.

Abbas had long defended the need to preserve the Oslo Accords, arguing it allowed for the return of Palestinian leaders in exile and the creation of the Palestinian Authority.

At the same time, Abbas has also threatened a number of times to walk away from the agreements signed during Oslo.

Abbas, in his speech on Sunday, also seemingly confirmed that US officials offered Palestinians the Jerusalem suburb of Abu Dis as the capital of a future Palestinian state, rather than their sought-after East Jerusalem capital.

Abbas said Abu Dis was “being offered,” though he did not specify that it was by the Americans.

In December, a number of reports said that when Abbas had visited Saudi Arabia in September, the Saudis informed him of the outlines of a peace plan being drawn up by the Trump administration.

Among the elements of the Saudi proposal outlined in the reports was the establishment of the capital of a future Palestinian state in Abu Dis, a suburb of Jerusalem in the West Bank, east of Israel’s security barrier.
Abu Dis (Miriam Alster/Flash90)
In early peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in the ’90s, the idea of Abu Dis as a Palestinian capital was floated, though it was ultimately rejected.

In 1995, the PA began building its parliament in Abu Dis, but eventually eschewed the massive complex for a location in Ramallah.

The PCC meeting, which is set to finish on Monday night, is meant to chart a new course for the Palestinian national movement.

https://worldisraelnews.com/iran-rejects-trumps-demand-for-changes-to-nuclear-deal/
Iran rejects Trump’s demand for changes to nuclear deal
January 13, 2018
Iran rejects Trump’s demand for changes to nuclear dealIranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (YouTube/Screenshot)
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Trump waives Iran sanctions, giving nuke deal “last chance” to fix its flaws; Iran rejects demand for change.
By: AP

Iran said Saturday it won’t accept any changes to its 2015 nuclear deal with world powers after President Donald Trump vowed to pull out of the accord in a few months if European allies did not fix its “terrible flaws.”

In a statement carried by the state-run IRNA news agency, the Foreign Ministry said Iran “will not accept any change in the deal, neither now nor in future,” adding that it will “not take any action beyond its commitments.”

It also said Iran would not allow the deal to be linked to other issues, after Trump suggested that the sanctions relief under the deal be tied to Iran limiting its long-range ballistic missile program.

Trump on Friday extended the waivers of key economic sanctions that were lifted under the agreement limiting Iran’s nuclear program. But he said he would work with European allies to remove so-called “sunset clauses” that allow Iran to gradually resume advanced nuclear activities in the next decade.

Trump delivered an ultimatum to America’s European allies to fix the “terrible flaws” in the Iran nuclear deal, or he’ll pull the U.S. out in a few months’ time. He made the threat as he extended waivers of key economic sanctions on Iran, keeping the accord alive at least for now. But his explicit warning to Europe that the deal must be fixed by the time the next sanctions waivers are due in the spring creates a high-stakes diplomatic deadline that will be difficult to meet.

Tough new rules
“This is a last chance,” Trump warned in a statement that outlined several tough new rules on Iran. “In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal.”

Trump’s declaration puts great pressure on Britain, France and Germany, the European signatories to nuclear pact with Iran. Trump wants them to help the U.S. devise a new agreement designed to prevent Iran from escalating nuclear activity again next decade, as permitted under the 2015 arrangement reached by President Barack Obama.

The 2015 nuclear accord, reached after months of painstaking negotiations with the U.S., Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia, lifted international sanctions in exchange for Iran limiting its nuclear program. Trump has repeatedly criticized the accord, while Iran has accused the U.S. of failing to comply with it. The next sanctions waivers are due in May.