Rouhani said the US wanted to make Iran surrender through unequal negotiations, referring to the economic sanctions introduced by the US President Donald Trump back in May 2018, hitting Iran's petroleum exports. Trump also pulled the US out of the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal.
After top Iranian military commander, Qassem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad on January 3, Teheran declared that it no longer would observe any of the deal's restraints, with other signees of the deal, Britain, France and Germany, triggering the deal’s dispute mechanism.
Rouhani had said earlier during a meeting with High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of European Commission Josep Borrell that Iran is ready to "return to its commitments" under the JCPOA when other parties uphold their commitments, including the removal of the US sanctions.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog agency said on Wednesday that although Teheran suspended its JCPOA obligations, Iran has not been enriching more uranium than agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal since making that decision.