Iranian president: Nuclear deal is the ‘right path’

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in an interview late Sunday that he is pleased with the nuclear accord struck between his nation and six world powers earlier this year.

“A very difficult agreement to reach, with lots of ups and downs,” Hassan said on “60 Minutes.” “But it’s the right path we have chosen. I am happy that we have taken extremely important steps on this issue and are in the process of taking the final steps.”

{mosads}Rouhani maintained in the first interview he has given with Western media since the deal was struck that Tehran does not want to build a nuclear weapon.

“We wanted this incorrect accusation, that Iran is after nuclear weapons, corrected and resolved and that the goal of Iran is peaceful activity,” Rouhani said.

He said the deal “creates limitations from all sides to getting an atomic bomb,” but does nothing to impair the peaceful development of nuclear energy technology.

Rouhani said Iran still has a long way to go before it can trust the U.S., but the deal is a step in the right direction.

“The enmity that existed between the United States and Iran over the decades, the distance, the disagreements, the lack of trust, will not go away soon,” he said.

The agreement aims to curb Iran’s ability to develop a nuclear weapon in exchange for lifting international trade sanctions.

Critics of the deal in the U.S. say it places too much trust in the Iranian regime to abide by the tenets of the agreement without granting international agencies sufficient oversight.

The deal unfreezes Iranian oil revenues worth at least $100 billion that are currently being held in overseas banks, funds opponents say the Islamic republic will use to sponsor terrorist activities in the region.

Rouhani, a moderate who campaigned on a platform of civil rights an opening Iran to the world, said there are “similarities” between opponents of the deal in both countries.

“It’s natural that opponents always look for the maximum possible outcome,” he said. “In an agreement, neither achieves the maximum. Both sides must always concede a little bit from the maximum to get an agreement.”