President Rouhani Says US Should Apologize to Iranians


President Rouhani Says US Should Apologize to Iranians

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The recent nuclear deal between Iran and world powers could lead to a decline of tensions between Tehran and Washington, but the US is expected to apologize to Iranians before that, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was quoted as saying on Thursday.

"The way this (nuclear) agreement is applied can have an impact on the future," Rouhani said in an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper ahead of his trip to Italy this weekend, his first to a European capital.

"If it is well applied it can lay the foundation for fewer tensions with the United States, creating the conditions to open a new era. But if the Americans don't respect their part of the nuclear accord, then surely our relationship will remain as it has been in the past," he said, Reuters reported.

Asked about the possible re-opening of embassies, Rouhani said, "One day these embassies will re-open but what counts is behavior. The Americans hold the key to this."

He added that if "they modify their policies, correct errors committed in these 37 years and apologize to the Iranian people, the situation will change and good things can happen".

US embassy in Tehran was shut down in 1979 following its seizure by Iranian university students.

On November 4, 1979, and less than a year after the victory of the Islamic Revolution that toppled a US-backed monarchy, Iranian university students seized the US embassy in Tehran, which had become a center of espionage.

The students who seized the embassy later published documents proving that the compound was indeed engaged in plans and measures to overthrow the Islamic Republic.

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