Rouhani hopes US President Biden unravels Trump's Iran policies

Iran's president reiterated his hope on Wednesday that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden would return America's Iran policy to where he left things as vice president four years ago, state TV reported, rejoining Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers.

Hassan Rouhani said that if Iran and U.S. could find a path back to " situation on Jan 20, 2017," President Donald Trump's inauguration day, "it could be a huge solution for many issues and problems."

Under Trump, tensions between U.S. and Iran have escalated, pushing two sides to brink of war earlier this year.

One of Trump's signature foreign policy moves was unilaterally withdrawing from nuclear accord in 2018, which h limited Iran's uranium enrichment in exchange for lifting ecomic sanctions.

Trump has since piled punishing sanctions on Iran that have devastated country's ecomy and crashed its currency.

Rouhani called on Biden to "explicitly condemn" Trump's maximum pressure campaign as well as "compensate for wrong policies pursued over past four years," a possible reference to massive financial losses Iran suffered as a result of Trump's sanctions campaign.

In an effort to pressure Europe to find a way around sanctions, Iran has grually abandoned limits of nuclear deal.

Iran's enriched uranium stockpile, which would have been under 300 kilograms (660 pounds) in deal, w stands at over 2,440 kilograms (5,380 pounds), according to latest report by U.N. inspectors.

That's potentially eugh material to make at least two nuclear weapons, experts say, if Iran chose to pursue bomb.

Iran long has maintained its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, along with Iran's foreign minister, have signalled country's willingness to roll back its enrichment and return to negotiations.

Although Biden appears unlikely to lift crippling sanctions on Iran in his "first steps" in office, as Rouhani demanded in his Wednesday speech, president-elect has indicated he would return to nuclear deal if Iran first comes back into compliance.