Speaking during an inauguration ceremony on Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the actions of the previous US administration in sanctioning the Iranian nation, saying "We were in a difficult financial and currency situation, but we somehow managed to provide the necessary funds to [import Covid-19 vaccine] immediately, and the criminal who was at the White House would not let our money circulate in the banks, and we were struggling for weeks to transfer money from a bank to another."
"We still do not see any goodwill and new jestures in the new US administration. Of course, their words have changed, but the action is important. We must see in practice what they are doing and how they want to compensate for that crime," President Rouhani said.
In an apparent reference to previous US president Donald Trump, Rouhani added "A big terrorist who has now lost face throughout his country and the world, committed many crimes during his term in office," adding that "this new US administration must think about changing the course completely because it as proven it was a wrong path. That path failed and no one in the world doubts that the maximum pressure and economic war on the Iranian people have failed."
Rouhani continued "Basically, there are still sufferings and problems among our people, so if the new US administration is honest and keeps its words, it must immediately change its course and embark on a new path and make up for the past mistakes [done by the Trump administration] as much as possible."
The Iranian president's remarks came few days after the new US president Joe Biden called on Iran to return to full abidance by the nuclear deal despite the fact that his predecessor pulled his country of the deal in 2018 and imposed the toughest possible sanctions on Iran in violation of the accord and international rules while Tehran has not left the deal yet and has just reduced some of its obligations under the deal.
After the illegitimate US exit from the JCPOA in May 2018, the three European signatories to the deal remained indifferent to making up for Iran’s losses.
Amid the Europeans’ lack of action, Iran took 5 steps to reduce its commitments to the deal while vowing that it will reverse the course as soon as the other parties live up to their commitments under the accord.
The Iranian parliament passed a bill, dubbed the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions in early last December, setting a Feb. 21 deadline for Biden to lift the US sanctions. Otherwise, Iran will halt implementing the additional protocol.
Iran has so far resumed 20% uranium enrichment at Fordow plant in accordance with the Parliament’s legislation and has warned that in the case Washington does not remove all the anti-Iran illegitimate sanctions, it will also stop voluntary implementation of the Additional Protocol, which gives IAEA inspectors unannounced visits to Iranian facilities.
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