Iranian President Rouhani Asks Biden to Return US to Nuclear Deal

(Headline USA) Iran‘s president called on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden to “compensate for past mistakes” and return the U.S. to Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, a state-run news agency reported Sunday.

Hassan Rouhani’s comments mark the highest-level response from Iran to the corporate media’s declaration that Biden and vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris won the presidency.

The Electoral College has not met and Congress has not certified the next president.

“Now, an opportunity has come up for the next U.S. administration to compensate for past mistakes and return to the path of complying with international agreements through respect of international norms,” the state-run IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

One of Trump’s signature foreign policy moves was unilaterally withdrawing the U.S. from Iran’s nuclear deal in 2018, which granted them cash and more economic freedom in exchange for a short-term commitment to restrain nuclear development.

The U.S. has since reimposed punishing sanctions on Iran that have crippled its economy.

In an effort to pressure Europe to find a way around the sanctions, Iran has slowly abandoned the limits of the nuclear deal.

“The people of Iran, though their heroic resistance against the imposed economic war, proved that the U.S. maximum pressure policy was doomed to fail,” Rouhani said.

He added Iran “considers constructive engagement with the world as a strategy.”

Also Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif tweeted that “the world is watching” to see if the new Biden administration would depart from Trump’s approach toward Iran and seek international cooperation.

“Deeds matter most,” Zarif added.

Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press.