UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) — US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said after a ministerial meeting at the UN on the Iran nuclear agreement that reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) show that Tehran is compliant with the accord.
"From the technical standpoint the IAEA reports continue to indicate and confirm that Iran is in technical compliance with the agreement," Tillerson said during a press conference in New York.
"We are going to continue to monitor Iran's activities, and we will take additional steps, none of which put us in any way contrary to our obligations under the JCPOA," Tillerson said. "We are fully compliant with the JCPOA."
The US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also said that he shook hands with Iran Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif during talks on the Iran nuclear accord earlier in the night.
"It was a good opportunity to meet [and] shake hands," Tillerson said. "The tone was very matter of fact. There was no anger or yelling. It was an exchange of how we see this agreement very differently." He said that ministerial talks at the UN related to the Iran nuclear deal were political rather not technical. "It was not a technical discussion, it was a political discussion… So we had a very open and candid exchange of all the parties to that agreement. I hope it was useful to others. I found it useful to hear their perspectives," Tillerson said.
Rex Tillerson told reporters during a press conference at the UN that Trump had heard arguments on both sides of the Iran nuclear deal and it was time to make a decision on certifying the agreement.
"The president… he’s heard the arguments from both sides," Tillerson said. "We’ve had sufficient time to get our own kind of direct understanding of this agreement and how it functions. I think the time has come for a decision to be made."
