New York: President Hassan Rouhani says any retreat from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) or any attempt to confront or undermine it will mean weakening international community, diplomacy and talks and weakening the UN and the UN Security Council.
President Rouhani, who is now in New York to attend the UN General Assembly meeting, made the remarks in an address to a group of the US foreign policy elite.
He said, 'Our demand is to solve problems through talks and agreement and when reaching the deal, remain adhered to it; otherwise, it will mean total negation of diplomacy, being the right solution to problems.'
Elsewhere in his address, President Rouhani said through 73 percent participation in a very glorious competitive election on May 19 Iranian nation proved to the world that Iran is run based on public votes and democracy.
He said Iranian people announced their idea in the election explicitly. 'Iranian people want very good relations with many countries of the world and want to build their own country in light of good relations and constructive cooperation.'
Noting that construction of the country and public welfare are the most important goal of Iranian people, President Rouhani said the most important program that government had promised in elections to the public was to implement campaign against poverty, guarantee economic growth as well as constructive and extensive engagement with the world.
He noted that the pledges were translated into action during former administration over the past four years and today too, if there are any problems in the region and other parts of the world, the solution is not sanctions or war but democracy, public votes and roundtable talks and exchange of views, logic and reaching a solution.
'Our region has been the big scene of the claim that the countries wishing to solve problems in their own favor through force and military power, have been successful nowhere, neither in Afghanistan, nor Iraq, nor Syria, nor Yemen nor Libya. All these issues show us that to solve problems; we should first identify the problems well and then consider right solution for it,' he said.
'We have always been looking after helping and assisting the regional governments that have directly called on us to help solve problems in the region and their own country; on this basis, we helped Iraq in Baghdad and Syria in Damascus and on this basis we helped regional countries when they sought our help to fight terrorism.'
The president said, 'We are today happy that in our region, problems in Iraq and Syria are many times less than those in the previous years; however, there is yet very long way ahead so that we can solve terrorism as a problem facing the region and the world.'
'We believe that if those reaching agreement through logic and talks do not safeguard it and violate it, it will mean that nobody will trust diplomacy and talks any longer.'
'When countries sit together for months and discuss an agreement line by line, sentence by sentence and word by word for days and months, and reach agreement then and it is then confirmed by the UN Security Council later, it means commitment of all the countries present in the talks.'
After the talks, the President said, 'Among issues the audience raised in the meeting there were several key points on which explanations should be provided as follows: Firstly JCPOA reached after years of ups and downs and as the US initially selected the way to pressure and sanctions on Iran on the thinking that it can make the country yield in through pressure and sanctions. As they failed on sanctions, they got prepared to talk.'
'Of course, apparently there were talks those years, but the talks were not real and so serious to lead to a solution. Talks continued for months because both sides could reach agreement. Today, the deal is implemented and put into practice. Iran has acted on all its commitments fully and the evidence is the IAEA reports. The IAEA has testified in all its reports that Iran has acted on all its commitments, including the one in connection with heavy water. In that respect, our commitment was to be ready for sale if our heavy water was more than a level and if there was a purchaser, put it at the purchaser's disposal.'
'If international agreements are to be violated on a person's pleasure; so as Iranians say, nothing will be fulfilled, i.e. there will be no solution to problems through diplomacy. This means inviting the world to chaos, power testing and military power.'
Hoping that no party will violate the JCPOA, President Rouhani said, 'That what Iran will do if the US leaves the JCPOA, we will say on due time what it will do. There are different ways that we discussed in different ways. We made decisions on certain points.'
As for Syria, he said Iran firstly believed that terrorism should not dominate the country and Syrian people. Certain countries did not believe Iranian stance, claiming that terrorists should be given free hand under the pretext of being opposition, let's say those opposing Damascus and central government, he added.
