Hassan Rouhani, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, addresses the general debate of the 74th Session of the General Assembly of the UN (New York, 24 – 30 September 2019).

In his address to the General Assembly’s general debate, the President of Iran, Hassan Rouhani, today (25 Sep) said his country “has resisted the most merciless economic terrorism” and stressed that Iran’s “response to any negotiation under sanctions is negative.”

Rouhani said, “the US government, while imposing extraterritorial sanctions and threats against other nations, has made a lot of efforts to deprive Iran from the advantages of participating in the global economy and has resorted to international piracy by misusing the international banking system."

The Iranian President said that in spite of the American withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, “for one year, Iran remained fully faithful to all of its nuclear commitments” in accordance with the terms of the agreement.

He said Iran “provided Europe with the opportunity to fulfil its 11 commitments made to compensate for the US withdrawal.” However, he added, “unfortunately, we only heard beautiful words while witnessing no effective measure."

Rouhani reiterated that “the government and people of Iran have remained steadfast against the harshest sanctions in the past one and a half years ago and will never negotiate with an enemy that seeks to make Iran surrender with the weapon of poverty, pressure and sanctions."

Addressing the recent incidents in the Strait of Hormuz, the Iranian leader said, “the security doctrine of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on the maintenance of peace and stability in the Persian Gulf and providing freedom of navigation and safety of movement in the Strait of Hormuz” but “recent incidents have seriously endangered such security.”

He said, “security and peace in the Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman, and the Strait of Hormuz could be provided with the participation of the countries of the region and the free flow of oil and other energy resources could be guaranteed provided that we consider security as an umbrella in all areas for all the countries."

Rouhani proposed the formation of a Coalition for Hope that would include all countries directly affected by the developments in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

Published on Sep 25, 2019