China praises nuclear agreement with Iran after Trump's criticism

Beijing, Sep 20: China on Wednesday praised a multilateral nuclear agreement between G5+1 countries and Iran, a day after US President Donald Trump called it an "embarrassment" during his maiden speech at the UN General Assembly. The nuclear deal was signed in Vienna on July 14, 2015, by Iran and G5 + 1, comprising China, France, Russia, UK and the US, plus Germany.

"I want to stress that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is an important outcome of multilateralism," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang during a press conference.

"It is a model of resolving international hot-spot issue through political and diplomatic means," Lu was quoted as saying by Efe news.

His comments came after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in an interview with Fox News that Trump wanted to redo the deal.

Lu stressed the key role played by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in upholding the international non-proliferation regime and peace and stability in the Middle East and added that China had always favoured a strict implementation of the JCPOA.

The JCPOA was struck in 2015 after some 22 months of negotiations between Iran and G5+1 countries. Tehran agreed under the deal to apply certain limits to its nuclear programme, and its partners agreed in return to terminate a series of sanctions against the country, including those unilaterally imposed by individual countries.