Rouhani wants more talks with Russia about US nuclear deal exit

QINGDAO, China: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he wanted more talks with Russia about what he called the "illegal" US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal.

Trump said last month Washington was withdrawing from what he called "a horrible one-sided deal" and would reimpose US economic sanctions on Iran.

Rouhani, speaking at a summit of the Chinese and Russian-led security bloc the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the port city of Qingdao, said that Russia’s role in implementing the nuclear deal had been "important and constructive".US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany. Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.

Under the JCPOA, Iran undertook to put limits on its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Tehran. IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano on Monday reaffirmed the agency's accesses to all the required nuclear sites in Iran, and called on Tehran to ensure "timely and proactive cooperation" with inspections under the nuclear agreement.

"As stated in my latest report to the Board [of Governors], the agency has conducted complementary accesses under the Additional Protocol to all the sites and locations in Iran which we needed to visit," Amano said in his introductory statement to the first meeting of the IAEA's Board of Governors since the US pullout from the nuclear accord.

In a speech to a quarterly meeting of the Board of Governors in Vienna in March, Amano once again confirmed Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement, warning that any collapse of the deal would be a "great loss."

"As of today, I can state that Iran is implementing its nuclear-related commitments … If the JCPOA were to fail, it would be a great loss for nuclear verification and for multilateralism," he said.