Hassan Rouhani
Hassan RouhaniReuters

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threatened on Thursday to abandon the nuclear deal, if the US imposes any new sanctions unrelated to Tehran's nuclear program.

"The obligations are the following: the group of six will not impose new sanctions, and we should fulfill the agreements. In case the Unites States or other countries fail to comply with their obligations, we will be forced to do the same," Rouhani told the Italian Corriere della Sera paper according to the semi-official FarsNews Agency.

Rouhani went on to say Iran is in dispute with the US, given Tehran's demands that all sanctions against it be lifted as part of the nuclear deal. The US maintains that the nuclear deal only has nuclear sanctions lifted but not others - such as those over Iran's rampant human rights abuses, its ballistic missile program and active support of terror as the leading state sponsor of terror.

The ultimatum comes just days after it was revealed Tuesday that Iran has stopped dismantling its centrifuges at the Natanz and Fordow uranium enrichment plants, breaching the nuclear deal that calls for the dismantling.

It also recently bought a plane to deploy troops in Syria in violation of sanctions still in place in the nuclear deal.

The deal has been sharply criticized, both for allowing Iran to inspect its own covert nuclear sites and for having an end date at which time Iran will be able to freely build a nuclear arsenal.

"The US must apologize"

In his comments to the Italian paper on Thursday, Rouhani went on to say ties with America could be repaired - if the US "apologizes."

"If they modify their policies, correct errors committed in these 37 years and apologize to the Iranian people, the situation will change and good things can happen."

In Iran millions regularly hold protests against the US chanting "Death to America," and ironically the nuclear deal was reached just days after Iran's annual "Death to Israel" day when America was similarly demonized and US flags were burned throughout the country.

In light of Rouhani's threats, Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) slammed the administration of US President Barack Obama for ignoring Tehran's rhetoric.

“The Obama administration may insist that the nuclear deal is somehow isolated from other bad behavior on the part of the Islamic Republic, but the fact is that this is all part of the same ugly pattern,” Cruz told the Washington Free Beacon.

“Tehran understands perfectly well that the terrorist activities of the Revolutionary Guard, including the detention last month of American citizen Siamek Namazi and American resident Nizar Zakka, are part of the same anti-American hostility that also fuels their nuclear program.”

“Trying to separate out their activities is a fool’s errand," he concluded. "There can be no good-faith deal with a regime that is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and that has been targeting America and our allies for 36 years.”