Iran is ready to considerably boost cooperation with the European Union, President Rouhani said in a meeting with President of the European Council Donald Tusk Saturday.

“We should plan to promote all-out relations between Iran and the European Union based on mutual interests in the new atmosphere created by the nuclear agreement,” President Rouhani said, adding that sanctions imposed against Iran were wrong right from the beginning.

“The EU member states suffered the most during the sanctions era and in the new era we should renovate and expand Iran-EU relations to compensate for the past,” the president added.

President Rouhani said that swift and precise implementation of the nuclear agreement or Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) plays an important role in the expansion of ties, and added, “The executive efforts and preparations for the removal of sanctions needs serious measure by all sides, especially the European Union.”

He recalled the impact of the nuclear agreement on Iran-EU cooperation and the coordination of both sides to resolve regional problems, and said, “We have always had good, traditional relations with the EU, especially with certain EU members; these relations should be revived.”

The European Council president, for his part, underlined the need for expansion of cooperation between Iran and the EU, and said, “Lifting the sanctions is tantamount to choosing cooperation instead of confrontation and also protecting the interests instead of tension.”

Tusk said that the nuclear agreement is an important success for Iran, Europe and the world, and added, “The European Union did its best to make the negotiating bear result and this agreement is the first step for the broadening of cooperation.”

At the meeting, President Rouhani and Tusk also discussed bilateral ties and regional developments.

Iranian investors and entrepreneurs are given precedence as far as making investment in the country’s economic sector is concerned, President Hassan Rouhani said.

“Iranian entrepreneurs, managers and investors, both inside and outside the country, always take priority when it comes to presence in different economic areas in the country,” said President Rouhani in a meeting in New York with Iranian elites and entrepreneurs residing in the United States.

President Rouhani is in New York to attend the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

He said there is very good potential for investment and entrepreneurship in Iran, touching upon the “special conditions” created for economic development in the country following the conclusion of a nuclear agreement between Tehran and six world powers.

“Today, good opportunities have been created for further activities in the economic, scientific and industrial sectors, which should be utilized in the best way possible to boost the country’s progress,” said the visiting Iranian president.

Referring to the unfair sanctions imposed on Iran over its peaceful nuclear program, the president said the country made great achievements while under sanctions.

“One of the reasons behind the success in the [Vienna] talks was that the negotiators of the other side found out that Iran is able to revamp its economy [even] when under sanctions, and that they cannot gain concessions from us,” said the president.

He said the Americans have committed “injudicious and unacceptable” acts against the Iranian nation over the past decades, namely the US shooting down of an Iranian airliner and its support for the former Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein during the eight-year Iraqi imposed war on Iran.

Nevertheless, the president emphasized, “The Iranian people have no problems with the American people and [they] respect each other.”