Iran Press- The foreign ministry stressed that the imposition of the first "wave" of US sanctions on Iran sought to disrupt the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, following Washington's unilateral withdrawal from the agreement in May.
The Russian foreign ministry statement added: "We are confident that the JCPOA is solid enough, and the participants in the deal are capable of overcoming the emerging difficulties. We reaffirm our commitment to the JCPOA,"
The ministry pointed out that Moscow would do everything necessary to maintain and fully implement the Iran nuclear deal. "We have been taking measures at the national level in order to defend trade and economic cooperation with Iran. We also continue working with other responsible participants in the JCPOA in developing collective decisions aimed at accomplishing the tasks of maintaining and boosting international trade and financial cooperation with Iran."
The statement added: "The international community should not let important achievements of multilateral diplomacy be sacrificed to Washington’s desire to settle political scores with Iran in matters that have nothing to do with the JCPOA. The agreement should not be sacrificed because of US hostility towards Iran."
On Monday night, the first wave of US sanctions targeting Iran's acquisition of dollar bank notes, trade in gold and other metals, transactions related to the Iranian rial, and purchases of commercial passenger aircraft entered into force.
President Rouhani's warnings to his American counterpart, Donald Trump, live on Iranian television on Monday night, have been the focus of mainstream media attention around the world.
Speaking on Monday night, Hassan Rouhani answered a question about the United States’ stances towards Iran, including their suggestions for negotiation, saying: “US officials make contradictory remarks”.
Stating that Iranians are aware of US officials’ and their own officials’ behaviour regarding negotiations, he said: “Those who are in office in Iran today have been working with the motto of interaction, negotiation and the negotiation table since the start and they have even negotiated with Americans and others”.
“We negotiated for two years and reached an agreement that the Americans were more or less living up to; others were committed to it, and Iran completely lived up to its commitments,” added the President.
Rouhani also went on to say: “If somebody puts a knife in its opponent or enemy’s arm and says we want to negotiate; the answer is that they must first pull out the knife and then come to the negotiation table”.
He added: “I believe that their want to wage a psychological war and create scepticism in the Iranian people to be able to use it in the coming Congress elections. So, Trump’s remarks are aimed at taking advantage of them in Congress elections”.
In May, Trump announced that the United States would be pulling out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran nuclear deal, signed in 2015 in Vienna by Iran, the European Union, China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany.
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Sputnik and TASS news agencies contributed to this report.
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