Russia strongly opposes U.S. attempt to renegotiate Iran nuclear deal

MOSCOW, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- Moscow has a critical attitude toward the latest U.S. statement on reviewing the Iran nuclear deal and will do all it can to resist any attempt to scrape the deal, Russian authorities said Saturday.

Russia is concerned over the U.S. announcement on holding negotiations with its European allies to revise the Iran nuclear deal, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters.

"These negotiations won't have any effect on our approach towards the nuclear deal and this whole situation ... We will be analyzing it in a most critical way and will continue to judge the events in an unflattering way," Ryabkov said.

He underlined that the deal that was signed in 2015 between Iran, and the P5+1 - Russia, France, China, Britain, the United States, plus Germany, cannot be amended and that Moscow will "oppose any attempts to hamper it."

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said he will extend sanctions relief on Iran under the nuclear deal for the last time, threatening a U.S. withdrawal from the pact if the U.S. Congress and his European allies can not fix the alleged "disastrous flaws."

Trump's latest move casts doubt on the future of the deal, a successful practice of solving a hotspot issue through political and diplomatic means.

Iran's Foreign Ministry said on Saturday that Iran will never renegotiate the 2015 nuclear deal, formally known as JCPOA, despite the U.S. pressures.

Chairman of Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachyov also slamed the U.S. attempt to review the JCPOA as a dangerous violation of international law.

"Any attempts by the U.S. side to unseal the JCPOA without consent from all the other parties would directly violate the fundamental principles of international law, and as the matter also concerns the nonproliferation regime, it would also serve as a powerful incentive toward its further erosion," Kosachyov said.

Trump has constantly criticized the landmark Iran pact, in which the West promised to relieve sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt in Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Under the deal, the U.S. president must sign a waiver suspending the U.S. sanctions on Iran every 120 days.