President Rouhani addressed the American foreign policy elites and described exiting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or confronting it as undermining the international community, diplomacy and dialogue, as well as the United Nations and the Security Council and said, "we favor resolving issues through dialogue and negotiation and living up to the agreement when it is reached".
In the meeting that was held late on Monday in New York, Dr Rouhani referred to the recent presidential election in Iran and said, "people's turnout by 73% shows that Iran is run based on people's will and democracy."
"The people of Iran want good relations with other countries around the world and wish to see their country prosperous based on these good, constructive cooperation," continued Rouhani.
He added, "the most important plan that the current administration promised people to carry out, was fighting poverty, economic growth and constructive interaction with the world."
"During the 4-year term of the previous administration, we proved to the world that we are willing to settle regional and international issues through diplomacy and negotiation," said Rouhani mentioning that the current issues of the region and other parts of the world can be resolved only through democracy, people's vote and the negotiation table, not intimidation, war and sanction.
He continued, "our region is the greatest witness to the fact that countries that wanted to settle issues to their own benefits through force and military power, have not been successful, neither in Iraq, not in Syria or Yemen of Libya."
The president said, "we have always sought to help regional governments to resolve the problems of the region and their countries when they asked directly from us. On this basis, we helped Iraq in Baghdad, Damascus in Syria, and on the same basis, we helped the countries of the region who called for our help to fight against terrorism."
Dr Rouhani added, "today, we are happy that in our region, the problems in Iraq and Syria are less than in the past, but at the same time, there is still a long way ahead of us to settle the issue of terrorism as a problem in the region and in the world."
The president said, "we believe that if the owners of the agreement reached through logic and negotiation do not preserve and uphold it and break their vow, this means no one else will trust diplomacy and negotiation anymore."
He said, "when countries met for months, discussed and agreed on the agreement line-by-line, sentence-by-sentence, and word-by-word for days and months and agreed on the terms and then it was subsequently approved by the UN Security Council, it means the commitment of all the countries that attended the negotiations."
Responding to talks about the JCPOA, President Rouhani said: "JCPOA came after years of ups and downs, and after the United States first chose the way of pressure and sanctions against Iran, thinking that it was possible to surrender Iran with pressure and sanctions. After they did not succeed by boycotting, they were ready to start the dialogue".
Dr Rouhani added "the negotiations continued for months, so that the two sides could come to an agreement. Today, this agreement is operational. Iran has fulfilled its obligations 100 per cent and IAEA reports prove this."
"The IAEA stated in all its reports that Iran had complied with all its obligations, including on heavy water. In this case, our commitment is to be ready to sell our heavy water if its reserves increase, and if a buyer approaches we will give it to them," he continued.
He continued, "violating international agreements based on a person's will means inviting world to chaos and military power."
The President expressed hope that no party violates the agreement, adding, "the talk of if the United States withdraws from the commitment, what would Iran do, will be said in due time. There are several ways which we discussed in our country. We have decided in some scenarios."
Rouhani added "there are solutions ahead of us and we are not worried about anything, because we have always relied on the people and in this case, all the people will be united. Today, the US is the country that will unite the whole Iranian nation by withdrawal from the agreement and the whole world will see who is the one violating the promise, international law and morality. So, we will not lose anything, and the loss is 100 per cent the United States', and we have prepared ourselves for any condition and we will not have any problems."
The president stated whether Iran is willing to negotiate with the United States or others about other issues, depends on the JCPOA. Leader of Islamic Revolution has officially stated that the measure of our trust in the United States will be the very nuclear deal. If the Americans fully comply with this agreement, it means that this country can be trusted and we can negotiate with the United States about other issues later. But if the United States violates it, it turns out that negotiating with the United States about other issues will not be fruitful either.
On the Syrian issue, Dr Rouhani said "from the outset, we believed that terrorism should not dominate Syria and its people. Some countries did not agree with this and they said that we should support the terrorists, those who opposed the government in Damascus and the central government."
The president added "after seeing that in Syria, innocent people were being beheaded, they realised that there was no way but a war and a fight against the terrorists. They themselves claimed that they were fighting terrorists and using their fighters against the terrorists. Whether they were right or not, we do not want to discuss this issue now, but the historical path showed that when a nation resists terrorists, it can win."
Dr Rouhani said "today, the major cities of Syria are released from the hands of the terrorists, and 85 per cent of the territory of Syria is at the disposal of the central government and the Damascus government. The rest of this land will be liberated step by step. Of course, this does not mean that all Syria's problems are over and the fight against terrorism is going to end."
The president said, "the danger is that where will the terrorists go after they are driven out of Iraqi soil and Syria? Which country will they go to? What problems will arise in different countries?”
"We all know that the roots of terrorism are various issues, such as employment, poverty, interference in the internal affairs of other countries, humiliation of people and ethnic groups and injustice," Dr Rouhani said, adding that until the root of these issues are not solved, the issue of terror and terrorism will not be fully resolved."
LR/PR
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