Rouhani Emphasizes: We Will Remove Sanctions from the Path of the Iranian People

Hassan Rouhani, the President of Iran, on Monday, December 15, regarding the nuclear dispute between Iran and the West, said: "We will break the chains of unjust sanctions and remove these sanctions from the path of the Iranian people." According to the ISNA news agency, he continued: "Some have thrown a stone into the well over the past 12 years, and today some tell us to hurry, while others say to abandon this work." He added: "We do not listen to any of them and will continue our work calmly, steadily, and calculatedly. Because we have both the rope and the way and the strength to pull this stone out of the well." It has been about 12 years since the official announcement of the nuclear program and the beginning of negotiations between Iran and Western countries. In his remarks, Rouhani promised to remove Western sanctions "from the path of the Iranian people" and emphasized that those who, according to him, "fish in troubled waters," might not be pleased with the lifting of sanctions. Rouhani stated: "The world has no choice but to sit at the negotiating table with the Islamic Republic of Iran, and other ways are wrong; they have experienced it, and if they try again, they will suffer more." Rouhani's remarks coincided with the start of a new round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 1+5 group. Early on Monday, the Iranian nuclear negotiating team, led by Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-Ravanchi, deputies of Iran's Foreign Ministry, departed for Geneva, Switzerland, to begin the first round of comprehensive nuclear talks with the 1+5 group during the seven-month extension of negotiations. According to IRNA news agency, Rouhani continued his remarks on Monday by stating that we negotiate with the world "logically and calculatedly," adding: "One day our entire negotiations will be broadcast, and the people and the world will see how hard and diligently the Iranian negotiators worked because these negotiations are very complex." He emphasized his "100 percent trust" in the Iranian negotiating team, adding: "They are experienced; the people should also have confidence, our path is correct, and we will continue this path, which will be better if it progresses sooner, but we must remain vigilant." Since the beginning of nuclear negotiations in Rouhani's government, conservatives, especially its hardline branch, the Steadfast Front, have raised severe criticisms of the performance of the nuclear negotiating team, including on July 23, participants in the "Red Line" conference harshly attacked the Iranian nuclear negotiating team. Previously, on May 3, a similar conference titled "We Are Concerned" was held with the presence of several representatives from the Steadfast Front in Parliament.