Iran's Outgoing President Blasts Parliament for Interfering With Effort to Lift Sanctions

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday accused the country's parliament of undermining the effort to lift the economic sanctions that were imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.

Earlier in the month, the Iranian lawmakers prepared a bill that would limit direct talks with the United States and make it mandatory for the government to first receive permission from the legislature.

"If we wanted to take steps [toward lifting sanctions] during the administration of former US President Donald Trump, the decision had to be made by the entire political system. The government cannot do it unilaterally, and the decisions by the Iranian parliament interfered with the process of lifting sanctions," Rouhani said at a meeting of Iran's central bank.

US-Iranian relations were severed over 40 years ago. Since then, Washington has imposed a flurry of economic sanctions on Tehran. The situation deteriorated when Iran began developing a nuclear program, and the US introduced new financial, energy and arms sanctions.

To ease the conflict, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was struck in 2015 by China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK, the US, and Iran to curb the latter's nuclear program in exchange for sanctions to be lifted by Washington. However, in 2018, the US withdrew from the agreement, prompting Tehran to begin gradually abandoning its commitments under the deal.