Iran President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said “the ball is in America’s court” and he called on President Joe Biden to return to a landmark nuclear deal and lift sanctions on Tehran. 

In a televised remark to his cabinet, Rouhani also hailed the end of “tyrant” Donald Trump’s stay in the White House.

During his presidency, Trump led a campaign of “maximum pressure” against Iran, pulling Washington out of a landmark nuclear deal with Tehran in 2018 and reimposing punishing sanctions.

The sanctions targeted Iran’s vital oil sales and international banking ties, plunging its economy into a deep recession.

A “tyrant’s era came to an end and today is the final day of his ominous reign,” Rouhani said.

Rouhani said Trump’s political career had “died… but the JCPOA is alive,” referring to the nuclear agreement’s official name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

“He did all he could to destroy the JCPOA but could not.

“We expect (the Biden administration) to return to law and to commitments, and try in the next four years, if they can, to remove the stains of the past four years,” he added.

Biden, who became the 46th president of the United States on Wednesday, has already signalled a willingness to return to dialogue with the Islamic republic.

Earlier, Antony Blinken, Biden’s pick for secretary of state, said at a Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that Trump’s policies had made Iran “more dangerous”.

Blinken confirmed Biden’s desire for Washington to return to the nuclear agreement but said that was conditional on Tehran’s return to strict compliance with its commitments.

Rouhani said “the ball is in America’s court” and emphasised that when Washington starts to carry out its commitments “we too will act on our commitments”.

“If they return to the law, our response will be positive as well.”

The nuclear deal, agreed between major powers and Iran in 2015 when Biden was vice president under Barack Obama, set curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities in exchange for relief from international sanctions.

Since 2019, Tehran has suspended its compliance with most of the limits set by the agreement in response to Washington’s abandonment of sanctions relief and the failure of the other parties to make up for it.

Rouhani labelled Trump “someone for whom all of his four years bore no fruit other than injustice and corruption and causing problems for his own people and the world”.

In another scathing attack on the former president, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said, “Trump, (Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo & Co. are relegated to the dustbin of history in disgrace.”

He added that the memories of their “crimes against humanity”, including the assassination of top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani last year and sanctions against Iran, “will shine on”.

“Perhaps new folks in DC have learned”.

“Mr Biden should know that his responsibility is to lift these sanctions,” Zarif told reporters after the cabinet meeting.