EU can't save Iran deal

• Saudis again say it will seek nuclear weapon if Iran does

• Trump threatens 'severe consequences' if Iran resumes program

European countries are powerless to salvage the nuclear deal with Iran after the United States pulled out, the deputy head of the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said yesterday.

Britain, France and Germany said they remained committed to the deal despite Tuesday's decision by US President Donald Trump to withdraw.

But Brigadier General Hossein Salami said Europe "cannot act independently over the nuclear deal," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted him as saying.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Tehran would remain in the 2015 agreement, though Europe had only a "limited opportunity" to preserve it.

On Wednesday Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, cast doubt on the ability of the European signatories to guarantee Tehran's interests, adding: "I do not trust these countries either."

Khamenei has the final say on all state matters and commands the loyalty of the IRGC, which has huge political and economic influence domestically.

Salami said Iran's enemies were not seeking military confrontation. "They want to pressure our country by economic isolation ... Resistance is the only way to confront these enemies, not diplomacy," Fars quoted him as saying.

Meanwhile, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN on Wednesday that his country will seek to develop its own nuclear weapons if Iran does.

Asked whether Riyadh would "build a bomb itself" if Tehran seizes on Washington's withdrawal from the 2015 Iran deal to resume a nuclear weapons program, Jubeir said: "If Iran acquires nuclear capability we will do everything we can to do the same."

Trump has warned of "very severe consequences" if Iran resumes its nuclear program, one day after pulling out of a landmark multilateral nuclear accord.

Asked how he would respond if Tehran restarted its nuclear efforts, Trump threatened that "Iran will find out."

"I would advise Iran not to start their nuclear program; I would advise them very strongly," the US president told reporters at the White House. "If they do, there will be very severe consequences."

Trump's move undercut more than a decade and a half of diplomacy by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and past US administration, which had resulted in the deal that lifted sanctions on Iran in exchange for limits on its nuclear program.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani had warned his country could resume uranium enrichment "without limit" but would refrain from doing so for now.