BALL IN AMERICA’S COURT, SAYS IRAN
Tehran, Iran - Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday hailed the White House departure of ‘tyrant’ Donald Trump, saying that ‘the ball is in America’s court’ to return to a landmark nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Tehran.
Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, ending the tumultuous four-year term in the White House of Republican Trump.
A ‘tyrant’s era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign’, Rouhani said in televised remarks to his Cabinet. He labelled Trump ‘someone for whom all of his four years bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and causing problems for his own people and the world’.
During his presidency, Trump led a campaign of ‘maximum pressure’ against Iran, pulling Washington out of a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran in 2018 and reimposing punishing sanctions.
The sanctions targeted Iran’s vital oil sales and international banking ties, plunging its economy into a deep recession.
The nuclear deal, agreed between major powers and Iran in 2015 when Biden was vice president under Barack Obama, imposed clear limits on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions.
Since 2019, Tehran has suspended its compliance with most of the limits set by the agreement in response to Washington’s abandonment of sanctions relief and the failure of the other parties to make up for it.
Rouhani said Trump’s political career had ‘died ... but the JCPoA is alive’, referring to the agreement's official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
“He did all he could to destroy the JCPoA but could not.”
“We expect (the Biden administration) to return to law and to commitments,” he added.