Rouhani: conditions are in place for sanctions to be lifted

Tehran, Mar 17 (efe-epa).- Iran’s president Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday called on the United States to lift economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

“Today the conditions are in place more than ever for sanctions to be removed,” Rouhani said in a speech.

 “The Americans have explicitly stated, and not once but several times, that the path of the previous administration was wrong and that maximum pressure failed.”

Rouhani was referring to the Joe Biden administration’s willingness to return to the nuclear deal signed by Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security council major countries, plus the European Union.

Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal — known as the Joint Coordinated Plan of Action — in 2018 to re-impose sanctions on Tehran.

“They have repeated several times that they want to return to the path of commitment and the JCPOA. Of course, the words are not enough for us and we are waiting for their action,” he added.

During the remarks delivered following a cabinet meeting, Rouhani said he considered the measures taken by the Trump Administration to be “an economic war”.

“During these three years, during the economic war, our nation was alone, but with all its capacity, it resisted,” he said.

He warned local political parties not to hinder the process of lifting the sanctions for their own interests in June’s presidential elections.

The nuclear deal was called into question after the US withdrawal in 2018. A year later Iran gradually stopped complying with its commitments.