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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Iran’s foreign minister: Trump trying to ‘kill’ nuclear deal

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, center, Head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Ali Akbar Salehi, left, and Hossein Fereydoon, brother and close aide to President Hassan Rouhani, meet with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna, Austria, Friday July 3, 2015. (CARLOS BARRIA / Associated Press)
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s foreign minister has accused President Donald Trump of trying to “kill” the nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

Mohammad Javad Zarif said on his Twitter account on Friday that the U.S. president “always wanted to kill” the deal that curbed Iran’s controversial nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Zarif says Trump is the one to blame and that the United States “violated the letter and the spirit” of the nuclear agreement.

President Trump has repeatedly described the nuclear deal as “bad” and has signed a bill imposing mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran’s ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.

Zarif earlier said the Trump administration is trying to “poison the international atmosphere” with the sanctions, which Zarif deemed illegal.