MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th April, 2019) Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday that Iran was mulling the possibility of withdrawing from the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) among multiple other options due to Washington's ever-growing pressure of sanctions.
"Iran has numerous options, and the authorities are studying them. There are very many possibilities considering further actions, and this [leaving the nuclear weapons treaty] is one of them," Zarif said in an interview with the IRNA news agency.
US President Donald Trump announced last May that Washington would quit the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal. Sanctions against Iran, previously lifted under the agreement, were subsequently reimposed.
On Monday, the US government announced that it would not renew waivers for eight Iranian oil importers that are valid through May 1. This move comes in the context of Washington's intention to eventually make all countries cut their oil imports from Iran to zero, which is likely to significantly damage the Iranian economy.
The NPT came into effect in 1970 with the aim of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and has been ratified by 190 governments
