TEHRAN (Dispatches) -- Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers "within hours" if the United States imposes any more new sanctions, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday.
"If America wants to go back to the experience (of imposing sanctions), Iran would certainly return in a short time -- not a week or a month but within hours -- to conditions more advanced than before the start of negotiations," he told a session of parliament.
Iran says new sanctions that the United States has imposed on it breach the agreement it reached in 2015 with the United States, Russia, China and three European powers in which it agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for the lifting of most sanctions.
The U.S. Treasury imposed sanctions on six Iranian firms in late July for their role in the development of a ballistic missile program after Tehran launched a rocket capable of putting a satellite into orbit.
In early August, U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea passed by the U.S. Congress. The sanctions in that bill also target Iran's missile programs.
The United States imposed unilateral sanctions after claiming Iran's ballistic missile tests violated a UN resolution, which endorsed the nuclear deal and called upon Tehran not to undertake activities related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons. It stopped short of explicitly barring such activity.
Iran denies its missile development breaches the resolution, saying its missiles are not designed to carry nuclear weapons.
"The world has clearly seen that under Trump, America has ignored international agreements and, in addition to undermining the (nuclear deal), has broken its word on the Paris agreement and the Cuba accord...and that the United States is not a good partner or a reliable negotiator," Rouhani said.
Trump said last week he did not believe that Iran was living up to the spirit of the nuclear deal.
Earlier this week, Iran's parliament voted to increase spending on the country's ballistic missile program and the foreign operations of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC). The move came in response to U.S. legislation passed earlier this month imposing mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.  
In December, Rouhani ordered up plans to build nuclear-powered ships, something that appears to be allowed under the nuclear deal.
Iran has said the new U.S. sanctions amount to a "hostile" breach of the 2015 nuclear deal.
"The failed experience of sanctions and coercion brought their previous administrations to the negotiating table," Rouhani said.
"The U.S. has shown that it is neither a good partner nor a trustable negotiator," he said.
"Those who are trying to go back to the language of threats and sanctions are prisoners of their past hallucinations. They deprive themselves of the advantages of peace," he added.
But Rouhani also said Iran seeks to remain loyal to its commitments under the nuclear deal, which opened a "path of cooperation and confidence-building" with the world.
"The deal was a model of the victory of peace and diplomacy over war and unilateralism," said Rouhani. "It was Iran's preference, but it was not and will not remain Iran's only option."
Iran's parliament on Sunday approved more than half a billion dollars in funding for the country's missile program and foreign operations of the IRGC in response to the new U.S. sanctions.
Rouhani also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday night, vowing to build on their joint military efforts across the region.
"Tehran welcomes the active presence of Russia's investors... in major infrastructure projects including in the fields of industry and energy," his office said.
Rouhani was addressing lawmakers as deliberations start over his new ministerial line-up, which must be approved by lawmakers in the coming days.
The president started his second term a fortnight ago under fire from reformists over his cabinet.
He defended his cabinet selections, and pointed to his pick for telecoms minister, 35-year-old Muhammad Javad Azari Jahromi, as "our first experience in choosing from the youth, someone who has grown up after the revolution".
Rouhani promised a more targeted approach to social welfare and job creation, responding to attacks during the campaign that his neoliberal agenda was mostly benefiting the rich.
He promised to eradicate absolute poverty and improve the conditions of the poorest "by five times" by the end of his term in 2021.
"The government is determined to carry out structural reforms. It sees the all-out fight against corruption as an absolute prerequisite for progress and social justice," he said.
He also detailed a range of economic challenges, particularly the need to clean up the banking system, which is riven with toxic debt, and reform taxation to end the country's reliance on unstable oil revenues.
"Reducing tax exemptions along with expanded tax coverage can boost justice," he said.
He promised a new rating system for banks and an increase in their capital requirements "to reach global standards".