Hassan Rouhani says US Sanctions are at the Edge of Termination

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On Sunday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared that the US has been defeated in its economic war against his country and said the sanctions are at the edge of termination. However, a top official from the Biden administration has confirmed that there is no deal yet and that negotiations between the two countries are ongoing. President Biden promised during his presidential campaign that he would work to return the US and Iran to compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The deal was approved under former Democratic President Barack Obama, also known as the Iran nuclear deal. Point to be noted that Trump campaigned in 2016 against the international accord, withdrawing the US from the treaty in 2018 in spite of the strong objections of European allies.

It is noteworthy that Iranian and American officials are currently negotiating indirectly regarding the future of the JCPOA in Vienna, Austria. On Sunday, Iran’s News Agency Tasnim reported that Rouhani delivered his words during a meeting. He said, “There are hopes that the country’s economy would return to the course of balance and boom of the years 2014 to 2017, with the enemy’s defeat in the economic war and the sanctions coming closer to the brink of termination considering the recent JCPOA negotiations”. However, the Iranian president suggested that his country was about to come out on top in the ongoing negotiations. The Biden administration asserted that there is no deal at the present time. President Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan also issued a statement.

Sullivan said, “There is no deal now. There’s still a fair distance to travel to close the remaining gaps, and those gaps are over what sanctions the United States and other countries will rollback. They are over what nuclear restrictions Iran will accept on its program to ensure that they can never get a nuclear weapon”. The JCPOA was implemented in 2016 and was initially approved by the Obama administration, while Biden was vice president, in coordination with the European Union, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia. The deal offered Iran international investment and sanctions relief in exchange for the Persian Gulf nation curbing its nuclear program. Moreover, the United Nations nuclear watchdog consistently verified that Iran remained in compliance with the treaty. Trump withdrew from the accord in 2018 and re-imposed financial sanctions against the country.