Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani accused hardline opponents on Wednesday of obstructing efforts to lift US sanctions.
“It is a great betrayal of the Iranian nation if any faction or person delays the end of the sanctions even for one hour,” Rouhani said in televised remarks.
“The small minority that is obstructing this path needs to stop its destructive act. If it stops … the government can break the sanctions,” Reuters quoted him as saying without elaborating.
“Today, conditions are better than ever for the lifting of the sanctions,” he stressed.
The Americans, he added, are willing to return to the deal. However, “words are not enough. We are waiting for action.”
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani defended Tehran’s foreign policy and claimed achieving diplomatic and political victories during three years of economic warfare.
In his remarks, Rouhani pointed to US failure in triggering a snapback of UN sanctions.
He indicated that US President Joe Biden is pursuing the former administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Tehran.
Rouhani seemed to agree with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian’s earlier statements.
Efforts to revive nuclear talks with Iran were being held up by “tactical problems” and the domestic situation in Iran ahead of its presidential election in June 18, the FM told a hearing at the French Senate on Tuesday.
“We are sending signals to the Iranians so that we can have this return (to the nuclear deal), which would be the prelude to a wider discussion beyond the JCPOA on regional destabilization, but also Iran’s missile capacities,” Le Drian said. “The return to the JCPOA is just the starting point.”
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and six powers.
Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, hit back on Twitter: “Nothing will happen unless the United States takes effective actions to lift the oppressive sanctions.”
“The current stalemate is not tactical and domestic, but related to the West’s deceptive strategy,” Shamkhani said, without mentioning Le Drian.
The new US administration aims to revive the 2015 agreement abandoned by former US president Donald Trump, under which Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear program in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
After Trump quit the pact and reimposed sanctions, Iran took steps that violate the deal’s nuclear limits.
Iran and the Biden administration are at loggerheads over which side should move first to revive the agreement, with Tehran demanding Washington first lift sanctions and Washington calling on Tehran first to resume compliance with the deal.
On Monday, Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told the European Policy Center think tank that he had seen no change between the Biden administration and the Trump administration’s policy of maximum pressure to force Iran back to the negotiating table.
He said he saw no reason to hold preliminary talks, because the US was making “extraneous” demands.
“There is a time constraint and that is once we go to our election it is a lame duck government and (it) will not be able to do anything serious and then we will have a waiting period of almost six months,” he said.
