Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday hit back at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, stressing that the United States has to return to the JCPOA and bring the situation to normal before calling for negotiations.
Earlier on Sunday, Pompeo claimed that the Trump administration is willing to talk with Iran ‘with no preconditions.’
“In the past, the enemies used to have some preconditions for talks with Iran, saying that Iran must first accept the preconditions then they can come to the negotiating table. But, they have stressed over the recent weeks that they have no pre-conditions for negotiations,” Rouhani told a meeting with a group of University professors and physicians on Sunday evening.
“They once threatened us as if they were superior militarily and today they say they do not seek war and only want us not to have an atomic bomb, which is of course, baseless,” President Rouhani said in apparent reference to Pompeo’s remarks.
Rouhani added “the side that left the negotiating table and violated the agreement should bring the situation to normalcy, otherwise we have no other choice but to continue with our resistance.”
“If the enemy realizes that the way it has chosen is wrong and improper, then one can sit at the negotiating table and any issue can be resolved,” the president further noted.
Source: Iranian media
