In his speech to the UN, the Iranian president says the next U.S. administration will have to capitulate to Iran’s demands.
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday spent much of his speech to the United Nations General Assembly attacking the United States and its policies that target his country.
Rouhani’s almost 18-minute long speech was filled with praise for his own country’s “democracy” and what he claimed was a key role in seeking “peace,” but a lot of his address was spent attacking the United States.
“We, as the oldest democracy in the Middle East, are proud of our people determining their destiny and will not trade domestic freedom with foreign interference,” Rouhani said, slamming the U.S. for “persistent violations” of the Iran nuclear deal that President Trump pulled out of in 2018.
Following American attempts to impose “snapback” sanctions on his country, Rouhani warned that America would eventually have to capitulate to Iranian demands.
“Any U.S. administration after the upcoming elections will have no choice but to surrender to the resilience of the Iranian nation,” Rouahni said in his videotaped speech that was shown on two large screens in a mostly empty General Assembly hall at the UN headquarters in New York City.
With elections in the U.S. less than two months away, President Trump and his administration have upped the rhetoric against Iran, which has been under harsh American financial sanctions despite other countries still honoring the nuclear deal.
“Any attack by Iran, in any form, against the United States will be met with an attack on Iran that will be 1,000 times greater in magnitude,” Trump tweeted on September 15.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced new sanctions against Iran aimed at extending the United Nations arms embargo that is set to expire in October. Although the UN Security Council voted to not renew the embargo, the U.S. is pushing for an indefinite ban on weapons sales and targeting international companies or individuals that will trade arms with the Islamic Republic.
On Monday, administration officials announced the “snapback” of sanctions that existed before the 2015 nuclear deal came into effect. Iran had previously refused to comply with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which last month complained about the “continued lack of clarification” by Iran about its nuclear sites.
On Monday, the State Department Twitter feed posted a graphic of Trump with the slogan: “As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has previously said he would work to bring the U.S. back into the nuclear deal, but Rouhani slammed the U.S. for using Iran as an election issue.
“We are not a bargaining chip in U.S. elections and domestic policy,” Rouhani told the UN. “The United States can impose neither negotiations, nor war on us.”
In his own address to the UN, Trump made it clear that he would keep the U.S. out of the nuclear deal.
“We withdrew from the terrible Iran Nuclear Deal and imposed crippling sanctions on the world’s leading state sponsor of terror,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to have his address to the UNGA broadcast next Tuesday, September 29.