TEHRAN, Dec 4_President Hassan Rouhani says Iran has been left with no choice other than resistance against those who have brought it under sanctions, but the country has, at the same time, left an opening for negotiation.
TEHRAN, Young Journalists Club(YJC)_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,” Rouhani said during an address in Tehran 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 the US lifts the sanctions it re-imposed on Iran after leaving the nuclear deal last year.
“We see no problem in that,” he noted.
Negotiations between the country and the P5+1 brought along the nuclear deal, officially named the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
The deal removed UN and unilateral nuclear-related sanctions against Iran, which voluntarily changed some aspects of its nuclear energy program.
The United States, 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.