In his first televised interview since being inaugurated for a second term, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed his American counterpart’s effort to kill the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

In response to a question about his assessment of US President Donald Trump, Rouhani, whose government reached a deal on Iran’s nuclear program with the six world powers in 2015, said Aug. 29, “This is a hard question. Americans themselves and their politicians cannot answer that. Even Mr. Trump’s fellow Republicans cannot answer that.” Noting “shaky” US government policy, Rouhani added, “This can be in our interest in that the US is experiencing the hardest time in building a consensus against Iran.”

While the US president is reportedly pressuring the intelligence community to find Tehran in violation of the nuclear agreement so he can consequently abrogate the JCPOA, Iranian officials are in talks with the Europeans and hope that they will stand up to Trump. In this regard, Rouhani cited French President Emmanuel Macron’s opposition to reviewing the deal, noting, “During the past decades, whenever the US wanted to form [a] consensus against us, it has been able to do something against Iran with the help of the European Union and its friends and allies. But today, this is not possible for the US. Thus, we can say that America is experiencing the hardest time, and Iran is experiencing the best conditions.”

In reaction to a recent trip to Vienna by Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, for a meeting with Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rouhani stated, “We made promises regarding NPT [Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons] Safeguards, the Additional Protocol and the JCPOA, and we have no other commitment. It is regulations that determine our relations with the IAEA, not US pressure. I don’t think that the IAEA does anything under US pressure, but if, hypothetically, this happens, we will not accept anything by force.”