President Rouhani remarked that “Iran acted wisely by not withdrawing from the [nuclear] deal, because they wanted to use it as a pretext to take Iran’s case to the UN Security Council with the aim of imposing international sanctions on Iran, so that the U.S. would not be forced to carry the load itself”. He also indicated that if the parties to the JCPOA “return to their commitments… we can return to full compliance and if they continue the same path, we will take the next steps [in reducing commitments]”. Rouhani went on to say with respect to discussions between Iran and the U.S. that “the problem here is not meeting with the U.S. president or negotiations… the problem is whether our nation’s issues, problems, interests and wishes are met in a negotiation or is it just a show”. He added that “any time sanctions are lifted and the conditions for a genuine P5+1 negotiation are ripe, we are ready to attend that meeting, no matter who the U.S. president is”.