Iran To Take Biden’s Offer of a ‘Credible Path To Diplomacy’

NOVEMBER 11, 2020

• Decades-old tensions between Tehran and Washington deepened after Trump unilaterally withdrew the US from a landmark Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed, then reinforced, crippling sanctions.
• Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last week, said that the result of the US election would have “no effect” on Tehran’s policies towards Washington.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani, on Wednesday, vowed to take “any opportunity” to lift US sanctions against Tehran, following President Donald Trump’s defeat by Democratic election rival Joe Biden.

AFP reports that while the outgoing Trump has declared Iran an arch-foe and sought to isolate it globally, president-elect Biden has proposed to offer Iran a “credible path back to diplomacy”.

Read also: Iran Says US Faces Maximum Isolation As World Powers Dismiss Sanctions

“Our aim is to lift the pressure of sanctions from the shoulders of our people,” Rouhani said in televised remarks during a weekly cabinet meeting.

“Wherever this favourable opportunity arises we will act on our responsibilities. No one should miss any opportunity.”

“National security and national interests are not factional and partisan issues,” Rouhani added after conservatives blasted his reformist and moderate coalition for its “over-excitement” for re-engagement with the Islamic republic’s nemesis.