Rouhani: ‘Win-win’ nuke deal a model for resolving disputes

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tuesday that the “win-win” nuclear agreement his country signed with world powers in 2015 could serve as a blueprint for resolving other Middle East disputes.

As an example, he pointed to Russian-led negotiations in Kazakhstan aimed at firming up a shaky Syrian ceasefire and paving the way for the revival of peace talks to end that country’s nearly six-year civil war.

“The new US president reads text of the nuclear deal but cannot accept it. He says this is the worst deal in history,” Rouhani said in a speech, according to Reuters. “This is a win-win agreement. Everyone benefits from it… The nuclear negotiations can be used as an example for other talks to bring stability and security to the region.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who makes the final decisions on all major policies in Iran, said that “newcomer” President Donald Trump had shown the “real face” of the United States.

Last week, after Iran tested a ballistic missile, Trump tweeted that the country was “playing with fire,” saying they “don’t appreciate how ‘kind’ President [Barack] Obama was to them. Not me!”

“Why should we be thankful to the previous US administration?” he said. “Because it imposed anti-Iranian sanctions? Because of the extremist Islamic State group? Setting the region on fire in Iraq and Syria?”

Trump has repeatedly criticized the nuclear agreement between Iran, the US and five other world powers, in which Tehran agreed to curb its uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, but he has not said what he plans to do about it.

His administration said Iran was “on notice” over the missile test, and imposed new sanctions on more than two dozen Iranian companies and individuals.