“We will welcome it if the other side obeys the law. A person who acts in a cruel way in the alley, breaks the windows with stone, but suddenly comes to his mind and says he doesn’t want to break windows anymore; shouldn’t we welcome it? We’d welcome such a move,” Rouhani said in a Wednesday address to a cabinet session.
“The moment this lunatic who breaks our window came and said ‘I’m sorry! I’ve now realized there’s no point in breaking your window. I keep breaking your glass, and every time you replace it with a new one. What I’m doing has no effect. I impose damage on you and bother you, but that doesn’t bring me anything. Now I’ve stopped doing it, and repented’; whenever they [Americans] do this, we’d welcome it.”
Rouhani said “if the incoming US administration of Mr Biden, which is to take office in two weeks, states that the US is going to stop breaking windows, repent, tread on the path of law, and comply with its commitments; if they ask us, our answer will be quite clear, straightforward, and simple: we’d tell them if you comply with all your commitments, we would fulfil all our commitments as well.”
However, he added, if the US fails to live up to its commitments, Iran wouldn’t bow to Americans.
“If you’d fulfil your commitments, it wouldn’t be a favour to us. That’s just reversing an unlawful behaviour you used to show. That means you’ve regretted doing it and realized you were making a mistake,” he made it clear.