TEHRAN: For the US to have an agreement with Iran, it must first come back to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with six powers that Washington abandoned two years ago, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised news conference on Tuesday.
“Washington’s maximum pressure policy on Iran has failed 100 per cent. If Washington wants an agreement with us, then they should apologise for exiting the deal and return to it,” Rouhani said.
US President Donald Trump has pledged to strike a new deal – under which he would seek stricter limits on enrichment, an end to Tehran’s ballistic missile programme and involvement in various Middle East conflicts – within weeks if he wins re-election in November.
“Trump has been talking a lot. The next president, whether it is Trump or someone else, must adopt a different approach towards Iran,” Rouhani said.
In response to US sanctions, Tehran has breached key limits on nuclear activity imposed by the 2015 accord. Last week the US moved to reinstate global U.N. sanctions on Iran, including an arms embargo, arguing Tehran was in violation of the 2015 nuclear deal even though Washington itself abandoned that agreement two years ago.
Security Council members France, Britain and Germany, which along with Russia and China remain in the accord, have dismissed the move as void given Washington’s departure from the deal and said it was harming efforts to restrain Iran’s nuclear activity.