Rouhani echoes Khamenei's mistrust of US as nuke deal grumbles persist

President Hassan Rouhani marked the end of his third year in office with a special television interview Aug. 2. These interviews, aired on Iranian state television, resemble the US State of the Union addresses and are designed to inform the Iranian public of the administration’s achievements and goals. While much of Rouhani’s prepared remarks were repetitions of his previous optimistic outlook post-nuclear deal, one negative point the president made was his assessment of US-Iran relations.

“If the Americans had implemented [the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] accurately and with good intentions and prevented the obstruction and slowdowns that we are seeing today, we would have had confidence in them,” Rouhani said. “We would have been ready to negotiate with them on other issues that would have been in the interests of the region, America, us and others.”