U.S. anti-Iran sanctions shattered: Iran's president

TEHRAN, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that the regime of U.S. anti-Iran sanctions has been shattered, official IRNA news agency reported.

"As the head of the (Iranian) government, I declare to the people that the sanctions have been broken and if we are united, the sanctions will be lifted soon," Rouhani was quoted as saying.

The United States knows that it has to return to law and assume its obligations pertaining to the 2015 nuclear deal, commonly referred to as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), he said.

He expressed the hope that the ongoing nuclear negotiations aimed at reviving the deal in the Austrian capital of Vienna between Iran and other remaining parties of the JCPOA, namely Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany, will bear results.

Abbas Araqchi, Iran's senior negotiator in Vienna talks, said earlier that negotiating parties have reached "common ground in many cases," but there are still differences.

According to the JCPOA, Iran agreed in 2015 to roll back parts of its nuclear program in exchange for decreased economic sanctions.

However, Iran has gradually stopped implementing parts of its JCPOA commitments since May 2019, one year after former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration unilaterally withdrew from the agreement and re-imposed sanctions on Iran.