Leader’s stance stripped JCPOA parties of any excuse for non-compliance: President Rouhani

Speaking at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Rouhani said Ayatollah Khamenei’s statements took away any excuse from the parties to the accord for conditioning a return to their commitments to a halt in Iran’s remedial measures under Article 36 of the agreement, officially known as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), Press TV reported.

“The highest-ranking official of our country explicitly stated that ‘if you practically and seriously return to your commitments, we will return to our [JCPOA] obligations as well,' without carving out a single exception,” he noted.

The Iranian president said, “This is a very important message. We tell the world that despite three years of suffering oppression, we are still ready to return to all of our commitments if we see full compliance from your side.”

“Presently, we do not intend to raise the issue of damages, and the extent of the damages they have inflicted [on the country] over the past three years. That issue will be dealt with later by Iranian officials.”

Speaking in his New Year speech on Sunday, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated that Washington must lift all sanctions before Tehran returns to its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal.

“Americans must lift all sanctions first and then we will verify and if they are truly lifted, then we will return to our [JCPOA] commitments without any problem. We cannot trust the Americans’ promise,” the Leader said.

“We trusted Americans during [tenure of former President Barack] Obama and we took steps that we had to take under the JCPOA, but they did not fulfill their commitments. On paper, they said sanctions were lifted, but any company that wanted to enter into a contract with us was alarmed by their agents that this could be risky... Therefore, we do not trust them and their promise is of no value to us,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

Elsewhere in his remarks on Wednesday, Rouhani noted that his administration will spare no efforts to ensure the removal of unjust sanctions imposed on Iran.

In a message to the Leade on Tuesday, the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) pledged to act on Ayatollah Khamenei’s guidelines on how to defeat the enemies' strategy of economic pressure and rid the country of the consequences of cruel sanctions.

Major General Hossein Salami vowed to speed up domestic production, fight corruption, mobilize the country’s young experts and offer a helping hand to the people in need as part of a campaign to weaken the enemies and dissuade them from following the strategy of pressure against the Iranian nation.

Source: Iran Daily