Iran on Wednesday said that United States President Donald Trump’s decision to sack Secretary of State Rex Tillerson showed that Washington was intent on quitting the nuclear deal signed between the two countries, local news agency ISNA reported.

“The Americans are serious about the withdrawal from the nuclear deal,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi said. “The ousting of Tillerson has taken place in this regard or was at least one of the reasons.”

Araghchi said European countries were trying to convince the US to preserve the deal, “but the extent to which they would succeed remains to be seen”. “Europeans are on the razor’s edge because if they incline towards Trump, they will lose Iran,” he added.

Meanwhile, Iran’s ambassador to London Hamid Baeidinejad said on Tuesday that Tillerson had become the first foreign minister to be fired through a tweet. “Tillerson found out about his ousting with no prior notice while he was in Africa,” he claimed.

Central Intelligence Agency Director Mike Pompeo will become the new US secretary of state. Deputy Director Gina Haspel will succeed Pompeo as the CIA chief.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had said that the US was in “no position” to set conditions for the continuation of the 2015 deal.