“Our nation fully understands that we won’t give in to bullying powers, but we are always ready for talks,” said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday during a visit to the northeastern North Khorasan Province.
President Rouhani stressed that Iran will return to its nuclear commitments if the Europeans do the same as well.
“We changed the strategic patience and started reciprocal actions as of May 8. If there is reduction of commitment, we will do the same, if they violate the deal, we will follow suit and if they return, we will come back as well,” the Iranian president noted.
He was referring to two phases of Iran’s reduction of its nuclear commitments in response to the European lack of action to stand against the US sanctions.
Iran has always stressed that its actions are reversible in case the Europeans fulfill their commitments.
President Rouhani criticized the three European signatories to the deal, Germany, France and the UK, also known as the E3, saying they haven’t lived up to their commitments to allow Tehran to benefit from the economic advantages of the deal.
“Russia and China have taken steps to support the JCPOA, but the Europeans haven’t had very good cooperation,” he said, referring to China’s purchase of Iranian oil despite US sanctions and Russia’s help to sell Iran’s oil.
The E3 have created a payment mechanism, called Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX), to do humanitarian trade with Iran. But, the channel hasn’t finalized any transaction so far.
The Iranian president also slammed the US “failure to fulfill its promises”, saying it has been now left alone so it’s dragging other countries with itself to do the same.
“The US claimed for 12 years that Iran was making a nuclear bomb, but then the IAEA said Tehran wasn’t seeking such weapons and closed the Iranian case,” he mentioned.
President Rouhani reiterated that the Iranian nation will overcome the sanctions and will move forward to reach its goals.
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