TEHRAN – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said on Tuesday that Iran will not renegotiate the nuclear deal, or its defense issues.

Shamkhani who was visiting Iran News Pavilion at Press Exhibition in Tehran, said, “Besides the fact that Iran has practically shown it is abiding by the deal, the International Atomic Energy Agancy has verified it eight times, too.”

Iran and major world powers signed the nuclear deal in 2015 under which Iran accepted to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for sanction relief. However, the US President Donald Trump has claimed that he would cancel the deal or put it to re-negotiation.

“We will not renegotiate any article of the JCPOA, whatsoever, and there would be no more talks on the defense issues, under any circumstances,” Shamkhani said.

Talks on Iran’s missile program  is over and we will supply our needs within our domestic capabilities, he said.

Reacting to the U.S. extension of Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), Shamkhani said no U.S. sanction can ever impede Iranian nation’s fundamental measures in defending their land.

Shamkhani made the response to a question about the U.S. Congress move to extend Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) which was signed by President Trump on August 2, targeting Iran for its missile program.

“The U.S. Congress is going ahead with extending CAATSA today, which is known as the mother of all sanctions. Ever since the US developed ‘mother of all bombs’, Iran has made massive advancement and turned into a powerful country; our progress proves the ineffectiveness of all these ‘rootless mothers’ on the fundamental actions of Iranian nation in defense of their national identity and country.”

Asked to comment about the alleged remarks of Russian defense minister during his meeting with Israeli officials about Iran and Hezbollah’s withdrawal from southern Syria, Shamkhani said “this is the first time I am hearing these allegations. Iran and Hezbollah forces are not only present in south of Syria, but all across Syria. The Russian government has not confirmed these remarks, and my guess is that the comments have only been spread by Israeli media.”

About the future of developments in the Iraqi Kurdistan region following the resignation of KRG Leader Barzani, he said “we tried to prevent the holding of the referendum because it would have not benefitted Iraqi Kurds.”

Shamkhani went on to add, “we had advised Mr. Barzani against his campaign for independence, but he did not take our advice and caused rifts among Kurdish people. Now he has no other option but to hand over his leadership over the Kurdistan region.”