Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday he was optimistic over talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and said the West has no other choice but to lift the international sanctions against Iran, state media reported.
“We’ve reached a point where the Americans and the Europeans are saying openly they have no choice but to lift sanctions and return to the (nuclear deal), and that almost all main sanctions have been lifted and talks continue on some details,” Rouhani was quoted by state media as saying. He did not elaborate.
Only the details remained to be agreed, Rouhani said.
However, there was no immediate confirmation from US officials or from the other parties to the accord.
Iran’s foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier on Saturday that the United States had an obligation to revive the nuclear deal.
Asked if he thought Tehran was serious about talks, Biden replied: “Yes, but how serious, and what they are prepared to do is a different story.”
Iranian government is facing severe financial difficulties and a local crisis since 2018 after the US former president Donald Trump withdrew from the deal and imposed new rounds of sanction on Tehran.
