BAKU, Azerbaijan, Feb. 25
Trend:
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called for “unity and cohesion” during a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
“We should not face each other, we must stand together, we must not fight and know that what can defeat the enemy is not the law, but unity and integrity,” he said, Trend reports citing IRNA.
Rouhani also told the Cabinet that Iran is “committed to the principle of the agreement and its preservation, and if there is no patience and resistance of the Iranian people, the agreement collapses.”
President Hassan Rouhani has called on the United States to “immediately” end its failed policy of economic terrorism against the Iranian nation, saying such a move is a prerequisite for negotiations within the framework of the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal.
Rouhani stressed that the Islamic Republic still wants the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) to remain strong, but that the agreement’s survival in the current situation hinges on the US abandonment of its economic terror campaign.
“The new US administration must immediately halt the economic terrorism operation. Once it does so, there will be a path forward. Then, we can negotiate,” the president said.
“We will talk within the JCPOA, not about the JCPOA. It is not possible to add two more articles [to the present agreement],” said Rouhani, referring to calls by the US and its European allies for an expanded deal with Tehran which would also cover issues unrelated to its nuclear program.
We stood by the covenant and acted based on the interests of the country. China and Russia relatively worked with us and tried to act. The three European countries acted very poorly and on many occasions remained inactive. The United States unleashed its campaign of economic terrorism, withdrew from the treaty, and committed all these crimes over the past three years,” Rouhani said.
Rouhani hailed the recent “temporary bilateral technical understanding” between the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Rouhani said Iran abided by the Strategic Action Plan to Counter Sanctions, a law passed last December by the Parliament, and at the same time maintained its relations with the IAEA and told the world that it is pursuing peaceful nuclear activities.
“This government is a government of prudence and hope… and it proved its prudence here. It enforced the law and did not budge an inch regarding the law…We did not implement 99.9 percent [of the law] but followed and enacted 100 percent of it. We acted smartly in such a manner” that the IAEA confirmed Iran was not opting for non-cooperation, he added.
The Iranian lawmakers on Monday said the agreement between the government and IAEA is in violation of a law passed in December that ordered the government to stop permitting snap inspections by the IAEA of Iranian nuclear sites starting this week unless sanctions against the Islamic Republic were canceled.
Iran officially started limiting international inspections of its nuclear facilities on Tuesday.