President Rouhani made the remarks at a Saturday conference bringing together personnel responsible for executive work in Iran’s 12th presidential election, which is due in May 2017.
The nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), removed a series of United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions that had been imposed on Iran under Chapter VII of the UN’s Charter.
Rouhani said the JCPOA saw the nullification of those resolutions — for a first time in the political history of the world — without recourse to war or regime change.
“There has been no country whatsoever whose affairs has been taken up under the UN Charter’s Chapter VII... unless they (UNSC members) either toppled that establishment or imposed war on it; say it if you know of one such country,” the Iranian president said.
He said Iran had the resolutions lifted by the very countries that had imposed them.
As a result of the accord, Iran has been using IR-8 centrifuges, which have a productivity 20 times higher than the centrifuges used earlier, Rouhani said.
Iran has also been able to engage in global commerce in the field of nuclear technology, he said, adding that the Islamic Republic has sold heavy water, a nuclear byproduct, to the United States and Russia, two permanent members of the UNSC.