Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed - today, Wednesday - his hope that the next government will complete negotiations to revive the nuclear agreement and lift US sanctions, which indicates the possibility that they will not resume before his successor, Ibrahim Raisi, takes office early next month.

In a similar statement, Mahmoud Vaezi, director of President Rouhani's office, said that it seems that negotiations on issues related to the nuclear file will be handled by the next Iranian government.

He added that there is no difference between Rouhani's government and Raisi's government in this regard, stressing that the agreement will take place after all parties achieve their demands and goals from these negotiations.

He stressed that it was agreed on points related to the sanctions, and that they will be activated only if a full agreement is reached in Vienna.

Raisi is scheduled to take office officially in early August.

Opportunity robbed

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the current government has fully prepared the conditions for reviving the nuclear agreement, and that the next government has the opportunity, and "we hope it will do the remaining work well and reach a result."

He added, "There was an opportunity to lift the sanctions and revive the nuclear agreement last March, and unfortunately this opportunity was lost despite the efforts of the Iranian government and foreign ministry, and the opportunity was robbed... If that opportunity had not been taken from the current government, things would have changed afterwards."

Rouhani also said at the government meeting that the nuclear agreement enabled the settlement of differences between Tehran and the rest of the countries or international institutions through dialogue and constructive interaction, noting that a number of internal parties that were opposing the nuclear agreement thought that it would lead to a decline in Iran's nuclear program and the loss of its nuclear achievements. Sanctions will not be lifted.

He stressed that the agreement proved the opposite, as the country has reached a stage today in which it is able to enrich uranium by 20% or 60%, "and if we need one day, we can raise this percentage to 90%."

Zarif reviewed a long list of sanctions that the United States agreed to lift in exchange for Iran's return to comply with the agreement's obligations, calling on all local political currents to work together so that the nuclear talks would bear fruit.

American willingness to negotiate

US State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated his country's readiness to return to the seventh round of Vienna negotiations on the Iranian nuclear deal.

Price revealed - in a press conference - that there are indirect talks with Tehran regarding the American detainees it has.

He added, "We deal with the issue of detainees independently of the negotiations of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it is important to us that the detainees are released as soon as possible, and we are working hard to return them."

Since the beginning of April, Iran and the major powers - with the indirect participation of Washington - have been engaged in talks in Vienna, aimed at reviving the 2015 agreement, from which the United States unilaterally withdrew in 2018 and re-imposed severe economic sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

The parties to the agreement held 6 rounds of talks, the last of which concluded on June 20, without specifying a date for a new round.

The participants in the talks confirmed progress, but "serious differences" remain.

After that round, the United States and France warned Iran that time was running out to revive the agreement, while Tehran responded by calling on others to make "final decisions."