In a speech replete with both bellicose and conciliatory impulses, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said the Islamic Republic favored talks with the US administration if the latter lifted all the sanctions it reimposed following its withdrawal in May 2018 from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
"Before everything else, they need to remove all of the sanctions regardless of whether they want to return to the deal or not, which is up to them," Rouhani told senior officials at the country's Foreign Ministry headquarters Aug. 6. The comment demonstrated an apparent shift from Rouhani's earlier adamant stance that pinned any potential rapprochement to the US reentry in the JCPOA. "What they are doing today is but economic terrorism," the Iranian president noted in reference to the sanctions, which Tehran has repeatedly lamented as a campaign targeting the livelihood of ordinary citizens.
