Iran's President Hassan Rouhani repeating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's words said on Thursday that the government cannot delay "breaking" the US sanctions even for an hour.

Speaking in Tehran during the inauguration of what the semi-official news agency called "99 urban planning projects," Rouhani said "Our responsibility is to nullify and break the sanctions and the government won't delay it even for an hour."

Rouhani was in a way repeating Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's statement a day earlier, when he told officials “nullifying the sanctions is in your hands”. Khamenei also extended a lifeline for talks with the West, saying, "If the sanctions can be lifted, we should not hesitate for even an hour.”

Khamenei’s remark about nullifying US sanctions is essentially an order to try to circumvent them. If the incoming Biden team does not react and Iran can get away with selling oil and importing vital supplies, then it matters little if sanctions exist on paper.

However, Khamenei spoke in a way that both the critics and the supporters of negotiations with the United States can use his statement to highlight their own factional viewpoint about negotiating.

According to his website, Khamenei said on Wednesday: "“I strongly advise that you do not trust the enemy. Do not trust any of their promises regarding solving the problems of the people and the future of the country.” This is the part of his statement all hardliner newspapers and news agencies highlighted in their coverage on Wednesday and Thursday.

Khamenei continued: “You saw what the U.S. did to you under Trump and what they did under Obama. The hostilities are not particular to Trump's America for this to end when he leaves office. Obama's America was also malicious to you and the Iranian nation," adding that "The three European countries have also displayed a total lack of commitment and extreme malice, duplicity, and hypocrisy.” This was also meant to play into the hands of Iranian hardliners opposing negotiations.

The headlines in hardline newspapers such as Javan, Kayhan, and Vatan Emrooz have been selected from this part of the speech by Khamenei, while reformist papers, invariably used the part about not delaying negotiations for even an hour.

On the issue of the sanctions, Khamenei differentiated the "lifting" of the sanctions from "nullifying" them. He said, “The lifting of sanctions is in the hands of the enemy, but nullifying them is in our hands. Thus, we need to focus more on nullifying them than on having them lifted.”

Khamenei went on to feed the pro-negotiation faction led by Rouhani: “Of course, we do not mean that we should not seek to have the sanctions lifted, because if the sanctions can be lifted, we should not hesitate for even an hour. However, this has been delayed for four years now. Since 2016 when all sanctions were supposed to be lifted at once, not only have they not been lifted, they have even increased.”

And as his final words, Khamenei once again returned to the balancing act on the tightrope: “If the sanctions can be lifted in a correct, wise, Iranian-Islamic, and dignified manner, this should be done. But our main focus should be on neutralizing the sanctions, and the initiative for this is in your hands."

This statement means negotiating only if Iran does not give up too much, such as its ballistic missile program or change its aggressive regional behavior.

The press and the politicians on Thursday morning tried to take advantage of parts of Khamenei's remarks that would serve their factional interests. Rouhani was the first one to seize the opportunity.

He also responded to Khamenei's sarcastic comment in which he said, "If you want to negotiate with foreigners, you should be able also to negotiate with your political rivals inside the country."

Without referring to Khamenei's ironic statement, Rouhani said: "saying anything that would divide the people is against the leader's advice. National unity leads to national power."