Iran’s Rohani Urges World Powers to Rejoin N-Deal

Iran’s President Hassan Rohani said his country will start fully complying with the nuclear accord as soon as the U.S. and other world powers that brokered the deal do the same. “We’re ready to properly meet our commitments the day we see the P5+1 meet their commitments,” Rohani said on Wednesday, referring to the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany. The 2015 agreement that limited Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief unraveled after Donald Trump abandoned it three years later. “There’s no other path before the region and the world,” Rohani added in a statement to state TV marking the 42nd anniversary of the Islamic revolution. “The path ahead is certainly a path of engagement between Iran and the world.”

It was Rohani’s final speech as president for the event, which was last year widely blamed for fueling Iran’s coronavirus outbreak, the worst in the Middle East. The occasion’s usual public parades were canceled this year because of the virus and held virtually. Rohani is now banking on U.S. President Joe Biden to help rescue his legacy of engagement with the West by working swiftly to rejoin the nuclear accord and lift sanctions Trump imposed. But the countries have been locked in a diplomatic stalemate over which side should first return to compliance. - Bloomberg