FNA- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif underlined that continued massive public support for the ruling system forced the US to sit to the negotiating table with Tehran as Washington realized the ineffectiveness of the sanctions.

"Some people wrongly think that Iran came to the negotiating table for the (removal of) sanctions, but people's presence at the ballot box made them (the world powers) sit to the negotiating table," Zarif told reporters in Tehran on Saturday.

He expressed the hope that the Iranian people would once again show their massive participation in the upcoming presidential election so that the US officials and other countries which threaten Iran would understand that they should speak with the Iranians with the language of respect and not sanctions and threats.

Iran will hold its next presidential and city council elections in May 2017. This will be the first time that the two elections are to be done on one day.

The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists that oversees elections, said in a letter to the interior ministry in July that it had agreed on a date of May 19 proposed by the ministry.

In October, Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli made the first official announcement about President Hassan Rouhani's bid to win a second term in office in the next year presidential election in Iran.

"Yes, I confirm that President Rouhani will be a candidate in the next presidential election," Rahmani Fazli told FNA.

He said that Iran's election headquarters will launch official work in January 2017, and added, "Enrollment of candidates will take place on April10-14, 2017."

The Iranian interior minister also said in response to a question about the voting method to be used in the next year presidential election that "20 percent of the voting will be done through electronic systems", and the remaining 80 percent will be done manually.

Rahmani Fazli said that election campaigning of the candidates will officially start on April 27-May 16, 2017.