Iran ready to hold talks with US if sanctions lifted: Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that his country was ready to hold talks with the US if Washington lifts sanctions imposed on Tehran.

A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency on June 26, 2019 shows President Hassan Rouhani (R) and Iran's First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri (L) attending a cabinet meeting in the capital Tehran. (Photo by - / Iranian Presidency / AFP)

Tehran: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said that his country was ready to hold talks with the US if Washington lifts sanctions imposed on Tehran. "We are always ready for negotiations. I tell you this hour and this moment to abandon bullying and lift the sanctions and return to logic and wisdom. We are ready," the Iranian Mehr News Agency quoted Rouhani as saying on Sunday. Leaders of France, Germany and Britain, European signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement said on Sunday that they were "extremely concerned" about the escalating tension in the Gulf region, which they said is likely to put the accord at risk unless the concerned parties join the same table of talks. In May 2018, Washington unilaterally abandoned the Iran nuclear deal and restarted imposing sanctions on Iran. On May 8, Iran stopped implementing some of its commitments under the deal and set a 60-day deadline for the Europeans to help Tehran reap the economic benefits of the deal. On July 7, as the deadline expired, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi announced that Tehran was ready to begin enriching uranium beyond the 3.67 per cent level set in the Iran nuclear deal, adding that Tehran would go on gradually abandoning its nuclear commitments every 60 days. On July 8, Iran announced that it had raised the concentration of its enriched uranium to 4.5 per cent from 3.67 purity. Following Tehran's announcement, US Vice President Mike Pence, along with other senior administration officials, vowed to continue to pile up economic pressure on Iran.