Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blasted President Trump on Wednesday for his “ignorant, absurd and hateful” speech before the United Nations a day earlier and vowed Iran would not be the first to walk away from the historic 2015 nuclear deal.
Rouhani, during a 23-minute address at the U.N. General Assembly, never mentioned Trump by name. Instead he referred to him obliquely, at one point saying it would be a pity if the nuclear deal were undone by “rogue newcomers to the world of politics.”
Rouhani denied that Iran had ever sought to obtain nuclear weapons and said the ballistic missiles it has been testing would be used only for defensive purposes.
“Iran does not seek to restore its ancient empire, impose its official religion on others or export its revolution through the force of arms,” he said.
Rouhani’s remarks were a response to Trump’s fiery speech Tuesday in which he said that Iran is a “murderous regime” that he put in the same category of rogue nations such as North Korea.
Rouhani presented Iran as a nation pursuing a peaceful world and called the nuclear deal negotiated with the United States and five other world powers a case in point. Characterizing it as an agreement negotiated with six world powers, not just the United States, and endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, he said that “it belongs to the international community in its entirety and not only to one or two countries.”
Trump, in his speech to the General Assembly on Tuesday, called the agreement with Iran an embarrassment and “one of the worst and most one-sided transactions the U.S. has ever entered into.”
Under U.S. law, Trump must decide by Oct. 15 whether to recertify Iran’s compliance with the agreement. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which has inspectors in Iran to monitor its nuclear facilities, has said eight times that it is complying. If Trump does not recertify it, as he has repeatedly suggested he will not, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose U.S. sanctions that were lifted when the deal took effect. That would in effect be a withdrawal.
On Wednesday, Trump said he already has made a decision on what to do, but he would not say what it is.
Iranian officials have said the United States will pay a “high cost” for walking away. Rouhani suggested the same, though he did not specify whether Iran would use a U.S. withdrawal as an excuse to ignore the curbs on its nuclear program that it agreed to.
“I declare before you that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not be the first country to violate the agreement,” he said. “But it will respond decisively and resolutely to its violation by any party.”
“By violating its international commitments, the new U.S. administration only destroys its own credibility and undermines international confidence in negotiating with it, or accepting its word or promise,” he said.
This is the third General Assembly since the deal was made, and Rouhani’s appearances have reflected the arc of Iranian sentiment about it.
In 2015, as Iran was dismantling and downsizing parts of its nuclear program in the first part of the deal, Rouhani was optimistic it would lead to growth as Iran was reintegrated into the world economy. Last year, the Iranian president was dour, complaining that the United States had not done enough to convince international business and banks that it was safe to invest in Iran. (by )
