Iranian president: US admitted past mistakes but took no serious step to lift bans

Speaking during a cabinet meeting in Tehran on Wednesday, Rouhani stressed that if the administration of US President Joe Biden acknowledges the mistakes of ex-president Donald Trump, it must declare it explicitly and seek to compensate for it as soon as possible as.

“In the current situation, the tone of the new US administration has changed a bit …. and it admits that the previous administration’s measures were wrong. It even took a practical step and took back the letter that the previous administration had sent to the United Nations” as part of an abortive unlawful push last year to make the world body restore its sanctions against Iran.

“However, we have not yet seen a serious step on the part of the US regarding the lifting of sanctions and explicitly recognizing the right of the [Iranian] people, which are our main issue,” Rouhani said.

In 2015, Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany, signed a nuclear agreement, officially called the Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Three years later, however, Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the JCPOA, which was ratified in the form of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, and reinstated the anti-Iran sanctions that had been lifted by the deal.

The Biden administration has indicated its willingness to rejoin the JCPOA, but conditioned the move on Tehran’s resumption of the commitments it has suspended under the accord in response to the US withdrawal and the other parties’ failure to meet their end of the bargain.

Last month, Washington retreated from some of its anti-Iran measures as it lifted travel restrictions on Iranian envoys accredited to the United Nations and reversed a claim by the Trump administration that it had triggered the so-called snapback provision in the JCPOA and re-imposed all UN sanctions against the Islamic Republic. https://if-cdn.com/1u4pWoU?v=1&app=1

But Tehran says the US should unconditionally remove all the sanctions imposed under Trump in a verifiable manner.

“The lifting of the sanctions and the full implementation of the JCPOA can be either very easy or very difficult. If there is a serious will among all sides and the seven countries, especially the United States and Iran, and if the two states decide to fulfill all their obligations, it is up to the US to lift all sanctions and Iran will immediately implement all its commitments. This is very easy and can be done in a day or two. If there is a serious will, it can be done this week,” Rouhani said.

“But if there is no seriousness or if the same evil obsession that haunted Trump and deviated, disgraced and destroyed him in the political arena … appears again, it will be difficult to reach a result,” he added.

The Zionists deceived Trump and made him go down a wrong path, the Iranian chief executive noted, saying that preserving the JCPOA is not possible through mere speeches and slogans, but it requires a practical move.

“I have emphasized to the European leaders that today the P4 + 1 has a heavy responsibility. They should know that we are the one who saved the JCPOA during three years of economic war, thus they should stop the sanctions and enforce the law,” he said.