The spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, has shrugged off the latest decision by the United States to end the waivers for Iran’s nuclear program, which were among the few remaining elements of the 2015 nuclear deal the Trump administration exited in 2018.

“America is trying to distract world public opinion with these actions given Iran’s powerful actions in the world and the continuation of its nuclear program,” Kamalvandi told the Iranian Students’ News Agency on May 28. He said Iran’s ability to sell fuel to Venezuela despite US threats against doing so, Iran’s “strength on the free seas of the world” and Iran’s “impressive advancement” in its nuclear program forced the United States to make this decision to create news.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced May 27 that in two months the United States would no longer allow waivers for European, Russian and Chinese help on various aspects of Iran’s nuclear program, specifically at the Arak heavy water reactor and Tehran Research Center. The Trump administration had previously argued that such waivers would constrain Iran’s nuclear program but Pompeo’s latest statement is a reversal of that position.

Kamalvandi said, “The end of US waivers on nuclear cooperation according to the nuclear deal will have no impact on the process of Iran’s work.” He continued, “This is just media noise and nothing more and they know this reality well.”