Dubai: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has urged the incoming US administration to return to a 2015 nuclear agreement and lift sanctions on Tehran, while welcoming the end of “tyrant” president Donald Trump’s era.
US President Joe Biden said in September the United States was open to rejoining the pact if Iran returned to strict compliance.
“The ball is in the US court now. If Washington returns to Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal, we will also fully respect our commitments under the pact,” Rouhani said in a televised cabinet meeting.
“Today, we expect the incoming US administration to return to the rule of law and commit themselves, and if they can, in the next four years, to remove all the black spots of the previous four years,” he said.
Tensions have grown between Tehran and Washington since 2018, when Trump quit the deal between Iran and six world powers that sought to limit Tehran’s nuclear program and to prevent it developing atomic weapons. Washington reimposed sanctions that have badly hit Iran’s economy.
Iran, which denies ever seeking nuclear arms, retaliated to Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy by gradually breaching the accord. Tehran has repeatedly said it can quickly reverse those violations if US sanctions are removed.
Read the article by Parisa Hafezi in The Sydney Morning Herald.