{"id":44936,"date":"2021-03-18T12:25:55","date_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44936"},"modified":"2021-03-18T12:25:55","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T12:25:55","slug":"yemeni-army-captures-23-houthi-fighters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=44936","title":{"rendered":"Yemeni army captures 23 Houthi fighters"},"content":{"rendered":"

Election looming, Iran\u2019s Rouhani says hardliners sabotage goal to lift sanctions<\/h2>\n
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\nDUBAI: Iran\u2019s pragmatist president accused hardline opponents on Wednesday of obstructing efforts to lift U.S. sanctions, in remarks that demonstrate how an upcoming election in Iran is now looming over the new US\u00a0administration\u2019s plan for a thaw.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cIt is a great betrayal of the Iranian nation if any faction or person delays the end of the sanctions even for one hour,\u201d Hassan Rouhani said in televised remarks.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe small minority that is obstructing this path needs to stop its destructive act. If it stops \u2026 the government can break the sanctions,\u201d Rouhani added without elaborating.<\/p>\n

\nThe new US\u00a0administration of President Joe Biden aims to revive an agreement abandoned by his predecessor Donald Trump, under which Iran accepted curbs to its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions. After Trump quit the pact and reimposed sanctions, Iran took steps that violate the deal\u2019s nuclear limits.<\/p>\n

\nSo far, Iran and the Biden administration are at loggerheads over which side should move first to revive the agreement, with Tehran demanding Washington first lift sanctions and Washington calling on Tehran first to resume compliance with the deal.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cToday, conditions are better than ever for the lifting of the sanctions,\u201d Rouhani said on Wednesday. The Americans, he said, are willing to return to the deal. However, he added: \u201cWords are not enough. We are waiting for action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nRouhani\u2019s close ally Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said this week that unless progress is made soon on restoring the nuclear deal, diplomacy would be halted for months by Iran\u2019s presidential election scheduled for June 18.<\/p>\n

\nOn Tuesday France\u2019s foreign minister blamed Iranian pre-election politics for hindering the nuclear deal\u2019s revival.<\/p>\n

\n\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nThe stalled nuclear deal has been a flagship policy for Rouhani, a pragmatist who won landslide victories in the last two presidential elections against hardline opponents by promising to open Iran\u2019s economy up to the world.<\/p>\n

\nRouhani is barred from standing for a third term and the slate of candidates has yet to be finalised.<\/p>\n

\nIran\u2019s hardliners say U.S. sanctions are proof that Rouhani\u2019s policy of reaching out to enemies was a failure. A delay in progress on the nuclear issue could hurt the chances of a moderate succeeding Rouhani, although the final decision on any diplomatic initiative would be taken by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei rather than the elected president.<\/p>\n

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\n\"<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Election looming, Iran\u2019s Rouhani says hardliners sabotage goal to lift sanctions DUBAI: Iran\u2019s pragmatist president accused hardline opponents on Wednesday of obstructing efforts to lift U.S. sanctions, in remarks that demonstrate how an upcoming election in Iran is now looming over the new US\u00a0administration\u2019s plan for a thaw. \u201cIt is a great betrayal of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spotlight_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}