The Workers’ Party have called on Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to condemn the United States withdrawal from a nuclear agreement with Iran. The call comes following an announcement from US President Donald Trump that he intends to withdraw from the agreement and re-impose sanctions on Iran.

Speaking on the matter, Workers’ Party representative Gavin Mendel-Gleason said:
“Iran has in no way breached an agreement which was reached between itself and major global powers, following protracted negotiations. The withdrawal of the United States from the nuclear agreement with Iran signals its fundamental untrustworthiness in international affairs.

“Its withdrawal from the antiballistic missile Treaty in 2002 has already led to a renewed arms race with Russia.”

Mendel-Gleason stated that it was Minister Coveney’s responsibility to make clear that the United States position is not supported by the EU, or Ireland:

“The agreement with Iran was made jointly by the US along with a number of other large economies. Unilateral withdrawal from the agreement is further proof of Donald Trump’s dangerous willingness to destabilise entire regions, and if it is allowed to continue we can expect further escalations of war around the globe in the not-distant future.

Given that Iran is in compliance with the global Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the USA is not, and 50 years on from the United States’ first promise to decommission their own nuclear arsenal, there is no reason to take the United States feigned concerns regarding nuclear proliferation seriously.”

The Workers’ Party representative concluded:
“Iran is undoubtedly a flawed and theocratic state. Nonetheless, in this instance, it is absolutely clear that the United States is the aggressor, simply because Iran’s economy remains closed to western corporations, and because it refuses to endorse the United States’ armed interventions in the region.

“Ireland must make clear that it is on the side of peace, and of multilateral decommissioning of all nuclear armaments – not of a belligerent Donald Trump.”