Iran says ‘will not stay’ in nuclear deal if US withdraws from accord

US President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon the agreement when it comes up for renewal on May 12.

Iran will not remain in the nuclear deal with world powers if the United States decides to quit the accord, a senior advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday.

A close up shot shows Iran's various Rial banknotes, bearing a portrait of Iran's late founder of Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, next to United States one-Dollar bills bearing a portrait of first US President, George Washington at a currency exchange office in a shopping centre in the capital Tehran on April 10. (AFP File Photo)

“If the United States withdraws from the nuclear deal, then we will not stay in it,” foreign policy advisor Ali Akbar Velayati was quoted as saying by the state television website.

Iran signed the deal with the United States and five other world powers in 2015 curbing its nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.

US President Donald Trump has threatened to abandon the agreement when it comes up for renewal on May 12, calling it “insane”.

Iran has always denied it sought a nuclear weapon, insisting its atomic programme was for civilian purposes.

(This story has been published from a wire agency feed without modifications to the text. Only the headline has been changed.)