Iran President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that his country is supporting a plan by European countries to bolster a nuclear deal that Tehran reached with the West in 2015 and from which the United States withdrew last year, Associated Press reported.
Rouhani said the plan included preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons, securing its support for regional peace, lifting U.S. sanctions and the immediate resumption of Iranian oil exports.
Speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting, Rouhani said: "We agree with the general framework by the Europeans." France, Britain and Germany had urged Tehran to enter talks about a new arrangement on the nuclear deal.
Rouhani's comments come amid heightened tension between Tehran and Washington following U.S. President Donald Trump's decision over a year ago to unilaterally pull out of the nuclear deal with Iran. The U.S. has imposed sanctions that have kept Iran from selling its oil abroad and have crippled its economy. Iran has since begun breaking terms of the deal.
Rouhani said Iran has never been after nuclear weapons and whenever the rights of the Iranian nation are considered in plans and negotiations, "the road is not closed, and the road is again open."
Rouhani said the plan could have been discussed during his New York visit last week to attend the U.N. General Assembly but that President Donald Trump scuppered chances by openly threatening to impose more sanctions.
Trump pulled the U.S. from the nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and re-imposed sanctions on Iran as part of a "maximum pressure" policy that sent the country's economy into free fall.
But Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that the approach has failed.
The deal aimed at preventing Tehran from obtaining nuclear weapons in return for lifting sanctions. It has routinely denied seeking a nuclear weapon
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