Iran's Rouhani says Biden win a chance for US to 'compensate for mistakes'

US President Donald Trump, who lost Tuesday's election to Democratic challenger Biden, has applied a "maximum pressure" policy and crippling sanctions against Iran.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

08 November, 2020

Rouhani said the new administration has an opportunity to "compensate for its previous mistakes" [Getty]

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said the next US administration has an opportunity to "compensate for its previous mistakes" following Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election.

"Now there is an opportunity for the future American administration to compensate for its previous mistakes and return to the path of adherence to international commitments," Rouhani said, in a statement on his official website.

US President Donald Trump, who lost Tuesday's election to Democratic challenger Biden, has applied a "maximum pressure" policy and crippling sanctions against Iran since his 2018 withdrawal from a landmark nuclear agreement with Tehran.

The reimposed sanctions targeted Iran's vital oil industry and banking ties, among other sectors.

This US "administration's harmful and wrong policy for the past three years was not only condemned by people all around the world, but was also opposed by the people of (the US) in the recent election," Rouhani said.

He added that the Iranian people's "heroic resistance against the imposed economic war" by the Trump administration "proved that America's maximum pressure policy is doomed to fail."

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday that the US election result would have "no effect" on Tehran's policies towards Washington.

Biden has said during his campaign that he plans to embark on a "credible path to return to diplomacy" with Iran, and raised the possibility of returning to the 2015 nuclear deal, negotiated when he was vice president under Barack Obama.