Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday fighting radical militants like Islamic State in Syria is the top priority and if they are to be defeated then President Bashar al-Assad’s government “can’t be weakened”. “The key point regarding the success of dialogue is the fact that any actor in the global system who pursues maximalist demands and does not allow space for the other side can not speak of peace, stability and development“.
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“I think today everyone has accepted that President Assad must remain so that we can combat the terrorists”, Rohani told CNN on September 27.
“As we aided the establishment of democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are prepared to help bring about democracy in Syria and also Yemen,” he said.
Rouhani has been in the United States since Thursday, though he posted on Twitter Monday that he would be cutting his trip short and heading back to Tehran in order to greet the bodies from the deadly stampede last week during the Hajj.
Rouhani praised the nuclear deal reached in July between Iran and major world powers, which will lift economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran curbing its nuclear program.
David Cameron has said world leaders are “miles apart” in the search for a solution to the Syria crisis.
It’s a testament to “the strength of the global system when it works the way it should”, President Obama said before the United Nations during his speech earlier in the day.
The remarks came amid tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia over the conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Iran, however, is the world’s foremost state-sponsor of terrorism, according to the U.S. State Department. “This is something that only the likes of Saddam Hussein would do,” he said. Former US Marine Amir Hekmati was sentenced to death in 2012 for espionage, waging war against God and of corrupting the earth; Saeed Abedini was arrested in Iran in 2012, charged with attempting to undermine the government.
“Rouhani is part of a regime whose survival is ensured only through daily executions, torture of prisoners, suppression of women and plundering of social wealth, as well as terrorism and destruction in the region“, Rajavi said.
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The agreement includes eventual relief of sanctions that were imposed on Iran for violating the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.
