Global Geopolitical Series: Domestic pressures pile on Rouhani as U.S. exit JCPoA

Domestic political pressures are piling on Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, especially from right-wing hardliners, who were opposed to the idea of Tehran joining the nuclear agreement after the United States decided to move out of the agreement despite pleading by other members to continue. Rouhani’s government has been instrumental in securing the agreement as the country’s supreme leader Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei was not very optimistic of the agreement and warned Rouhani’s government against trusting the western powers.

The critics of the agreement immediately raised a call for an apology to the Iranian people from Rouhani for making the agreement back in 2015. In a statement on Sunday, Iran’s Assembly of Experts urged President Hassan Rouhani to apologize to the people of Iran for signing the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

However, according to reports, Rouhani’s office came out in defense of the deal. The office of the president’s statement said that the critics failed to offer an alternative to the deal nor did they apologize for their previous faulty stances that led to harsh sanctions against Iran. Instead of apologizing, the President’s office pointed out that critics of the agreement are not willing to answer the question of how much damage has been inflicted on the Iranian nation by the imposed unjust sanctions and what they had done to prevent those damages.

Rouhani has urged all partners excluding the U.S. (Germany, United Kingdom, France, Russia, and China) to guarantee Iran’s interests and continuation of the agreement.