Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ruled out renegotiating the nuclear deal with the administration of President-elect Joe Biden, saying the agreement needs nothing more than Biden's signature.
Iran is ready to return to full compliance with the 2015 nuclear accord with major powers as soon as the other parties honor their commitments, Rouhani said Wednesday.
“I’ve said it before. It doesn’t take time, it’s just a question of willing,” he said in comments to his cabinet aired by state television.
“All it takes is a signature from Biden, and in no time we will all be back at where we used to be,” Rouhani said, attacking Trump, “the uneducated, business-minded man, who drew scrambled lines [his signature] on the paper” before pulling Washington out of the deal, known as the JCPOA.
“Just as soon as the 5+1 or 4+1 resume all of their commitments, we will resume all of ours,” he added.
Russian deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov on Wednesday called on Iran to show "maximum responsibility" in preserving the nuclear agreement.
He said Moscow was “addressing the Iranian side with an appeal to not raise the stakes and demonstrate a responsible approach. We believe it is necessary to show maximum responsibility in this situation.”
The Iranian parliament had passed a bill that would lead to referring the nuclear deal to the Security Council.
Once the bill goes through all the legal processes, the president is required to approve it. However, if the president fails to sign the legislation in the required time period, the official gazette will be forced to publish it by order of the parliament speaker.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said Rouhani was supposed to submit the law to the concerned authorities within five days, but he did not.
Requiring the government to resume 20 percent uranium enrichment and increase stockpiles of low-enriched uranium, the law also calls for an end of UN inspections of Iranian nuclear sites if the US sanctions are not lifted.
