Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani attends the Sustainable Development… However, he sidestepped a question from Al-Monitor about whether he might exchange a handshake with President Barack Obama if their paths happen to cross during United Nations meetings over the next few days.
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Rouhani, in his first public comments since arriving in New York for the annual UN General Assembly, was judiciously diplomatic and vague about many other topics, including the continued detention of three Iranian-Americans, the future trajectory of US-Iran relations and a road map to a political solution in Syria.
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WA) blasted President Obama this week, saying he had an opportunity to use leverage created by worldwide sanctions to take apart Iran’s nuclear systems, but instead signed on to a nuclear agreement that falls drastically short. The Iranian president is scheduled to meet Iranians living in the U.S. and have interviews with different TV networks.
But nuclear scientist Ephraim Asculai, a senior research fellow at the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies, suggested that Western leaders were keen to capitalise on Iran’s resources.
Rouhani also added that all nations around the world as well as in the Middle East region will benefit from the nuclear deal results.
Earlier this month, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, told NPR that there were “practical ways” to deal with Americans imprisoned in Iran.
The Post’s Tehran correspondent, Jason Rezaian, has been detained since July 2014 and was tried this year on charges including espionage.
Obama had it right when he said that no deal was better than a bad deal.
Earlier drafts of the Cardin bill would have prevented the president from lifting certain sanctions designations imposed on Iranian entities, including Iranian banks, said to support Iran’s ballistic missile activities.
Rouhani said at one point, “We do believe Syria must face new conditions” requiring a change in the “framework” of the government in Damascus.
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Challenged about routine chants of “Death to America” during weekly prayers and rallies in Iran, Rouhani said such slogans are not intended to say that Iranians want the U.S.to be destroyed or that Iranians are hostile to the American people. He readily acknowledged that Iranian military personnel are there, actively helping Assad. He said President Vladimir Putin had told him Russian Federation wants to be more active in opposing terrorism in Syria, a goal shared by the Syrian government and Iran.
