ISTANBUL -- New U.S. sanctions targeting Iran are a breach of its nuclear deal with world powers and an attempt to abolish the accord, Iranian officials said Thursday, adding that the government will respond to what it sees as an escalation of U.S. aggression.
"We believe that the nuclear deal has been violated, and we will react appropriately," Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on state television Thursday.
The deal curbed Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for the removal of some sanctions, while the new measures target anyone involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The "belief in Washington is that ... Iran must be put under pressure," Araghchi said. And the goal of the new sanctions, signed into law Wednesday by President Donald Trump, is "to destroy" the 2015 agreement so that Iran will withdraw.
The administration has criticized the deal for its narrow focus on the nuclear program without addressing issues such as Iran's support for proxy militias and its growing ballistic missile arsenal. Trump has questioned the "utility of the agreement," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in remarks Tuesday at the State Department.
The "agreement dealt with a very small slice of Iran's threats," Tillerson said. "It was kind of like we put blinders on and just ignored all those other things."
But even as the United States ramps up pressure on Iran -- including threats to leave the pact -- officials in Tehran have moved cautiously in response, weighing the cost of potential conflict with the benefits of remaining part of the deal.
Under the nuclear deal, Iran has rejoined the global economy and is now keen to avoid blame for the collapse of the agreement. Trump recently certified Iran's compliance with the deal, an authorization he is required to make to Congress every 90 days, but has suggested he may not do so again in the fall, without saying why.
"President Trump made clear that, in terms of the fate of the nuclear deal, the administration's latest certification of Iranian compliance was only a temporary reprieve -- a stay of execution," said Robert Malley, who served as the White House coordinator for the Middle East under President Barack Obama.
So far, Iran "has appeared content to sit back and allow the [Trump] administration to further isolate itself" on the nuclear deal, said Malley, who is now vice president of policy for the Brussels-based International Crisis Group. "But that calculus could change."
Iran, experts say, could continue to adhere to the agreement and seek assurances from Europe and Russia that they would refuse any U.S. attempt to renegotiate. The European Union has countered Trump's calls to ditch the accord, reminding the administration that it belongs to the international community.
If the White House decided to declare Iran noncompliant, it would probably be based "on little to no valid evidence," said Richard Nephew, former coordinator for sanctions policy at the State Department.
But Iran still could push the technical limits of the deal with "small incremental steps that restart its nuclear program," he said.
It also could restart all of its nuclear activity, which it says is for peaceful purposes, or use its military assets or proxy forces to strike U.S. interests in the region.
Iran and the United States have skirmished in the waters of the Persian Gulf, where the U.S. Navy stations its 5th Fleet. American forces and militias loyal to Iran also fight in proximity in Iraq and Syria, where they are both battling the Islamic State.
According to Ali Vaez, senior Iran analyst at the International Crisis Group, rising tensions "could push Iran to double down on means of deterrence it considers essential to its national security," including missile defense and support for regional proxies.
Last week, Iran successfully fired its satellite-carrying Simorgh launch vehicle into space, prompting the U.S. Treasury Department to impose additional sanctions.
Iran's parliament, reacting to the sanctions bill as it made its way through Congress, recently fast-tracked funding for the country's ballistic missile program and Revolutionary Guard Corps.
According to Abbas Aslani, world news editor at Iran's privately run Tasnim news agency, Iran "will not violate" the nuclear agreement but neither will it "abandon or compromise on its defense capabilities, including the missile program."
The nuclear deal was negotiated under Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a moderate recently elected to a second term.
Rouhani fired back at domestic critics Thursday at a ceremony marking his formal endorsement by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all matters of the state.
Iran survived some of the toughest sanctions "through a combination of the power of diplomacy and deterrent defensive power," The Associated Press quoted Rouhani as saying. During his second term, Iran will "insist on constructive engagement more than before."
Launch protested
The U.S. said Wednesday that it persuaded France, Germany and the U.K. to join in signing a letter of protest to the U.N. Security Council about Iran's "threatening and provocative" launch last week.
The four powers, which brokered the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran along with China and Russia, called the launch "inconsistent" with a Security Council resolution that accompanied the nuclear agreement.
The European allies backed Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., even though they oppose Trump's suggestions that the U.S. will quit the nuclear deal.
"The world must not allow Iran to act in defiance of the Security Council and its resolutions," Haley said in a statement Wednesday, after condemning Iran before the council for its support of "terrorist" organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah. The U.S. "will be vigilant in ensuring that Iran is held accountable for such behavior."
In the letter, the four nations called on Iran "to immediately cease all activities related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology."
And they said Iran's "long-standing program to develop ballistic missiles continues to be inconsistent with" the U.N. resolution and has a destabilizing effect in the region.
The letter echoes provisions in U.N. Security Council Resolution 2231, which calls on Iran "not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology" until eight years after the agreement was adopted.
Russia and China, which have veto power in the Security Council, didn't sign the U.S. letter and have rejected the Trump administration's contention that Iran is undermining the nuclear accord.
The launch "is not a violation of the agreement because it concerns other things which were not directly written into the agreement," said Vassily Nebenzia, Russia's new ambassador to the U.N.
Information for this article was contributed by Erin Cunningham of The Washington Post and by Kambiz Foroohar of Bloomberg News.
A Section on 08/04/2017