Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that his country was still open to negotiations amidst ongoing tensions, a media report said.
“We have no choice other than resistance and steadfastness in the face of those who impose sanctions, but have not shut the door to negotiation either,” Press TV said in te report citing Rouhani as saying during an address here on Wednesday.
“We believe that wrongful and oppressive sanctions should be lifted first, and then the issue of negotiation can be addressed,” he added.
Rouhani said Iran was ready to hold talks within the framework of the P5+1 states – the US, the UK, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China – as soon as Washington lifts the sanctions it re-imposed on Iran after leaving the nuclear deal last year.
“We see no problem in that,” he noted.
The US, however, left the deal in May 2018 in a move that flew in the face of the agreement’s multi-party nature, and the fact that the accord has been ratified in the form of a UN Security Council resolution.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi said that the Islamic Republic has no intention to abandon the deal, saying Tehran will resume fulfilling its commitments under the accord if sanctions were lifted.
“Our goal is not to exit the JCPOA (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), but we have decided to reduce our commitments after an entire year of exercising patience and witnessing non-compliance on the part of the European countries,” Araqchi said in a meeting with Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi in Tokyo on Tuesday.
The sanctions were re-imposed by the US on Iran after Washington unilaterally abandoned the deal.