US President Donald Trump has said he remains open to forging a new nuclear deal with Iran, as he confirmed Washington will go ahead with reimposing sanctions against Tehran.
Despite pleas from other parties to the agreement, Mr Trump pulled the US out of the deal in May, claiming the Iranian regime was cheating on its commitments and funding "malign" activities around the region.
"I remain open to reaching a more comprehensive deal that addresses the full range of the regime's malign activities, including its ballistic missile program and its support for terrorism," Mr Trump said in a statement.
A first phase of US sanctions against Iran goes into effect overnight, targeting Iran's access to US banknotes and key industries including cars and carpets.
The second phase, which takes effect 5 November and will block Iran's oil sales, is due to cause more damage, though several countries including China, India and Turkey have indicated they are not willing to entirely cut their Iranian energy purchases.
Mr Trump called the multilateral Iran accord a "horrible, one-sided deal."
It "failed to achieve the fundamental objective of blocking all paths to an Iranian nuclear bomb, and it threw a lifeline of cash to a murderous dictatorship that has continued to spread bloodshed, violence and chaos," he said.
However, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that Washington's call for new nuclear negotiations at the same time the US reimposes crippling sanctions "makes no sense".
"They want to launch psychological warfare against the Iranian nation and create divisions among the people," he said in a televised interview.
"Negotiations with sanctions doesn't make sense. They are imposing sanctions on Iranian children, patients and the nation," the president said.
Mr Rouhani referred to fears that essential supplies such as medicines would be affected when sanctions return tomorrow.
He said Iran had "always welcomed negotiations" but that Washington would first have to demonstrate it can be trusted.
"If you're an enemy and you stab the other person with a knife and then you say you want negotiations, then the first thing you have to do is remove the knife."
"How do they show they are trustworthy? By returning to the JCPOA," he said, using the technical name for the 2015 nuclear deal.
After months of fierce rhetoric, Mr Trump surprised observers last week when he offered to meet with Mr Rouhani without preconditions.
But Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggested it was hard to imagine negotiating with the man who tore up an agreement on which Iran and world powers had spent the "longest hours in negotiating history."
Mr Trump warned that businesses and individuals that continue to work with Tehran risk "severe" consequences.
"We urge all nations to take such steps to make clear that the Iranian regime faces a choice: either change its threatening, destabilising behavior and reintegrate with the global economy, or continue down a path of economic isolation," he said.
