Iran’s New President Preaches Tolerance in First U.N. Appearance
By Hemant Verma On Tuesday, September 24, 2013
World
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Rouhani's U.N. Speech in 3 Minutes:
Addressing the General Assembly, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran
explained his positions on Syria, sanctions and his country’s nuclear
program.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addressed the General Assembly on Tuesday.
Mr. Rouhani, whose speech followed President Obama’s by more than six
hours, also acknowledged Mr. Obama’s outreach to Iran aimed at resolving
more than three decades of estrangement and recrimination, and
expressed hope that “we can arrive at a framework to manage our
differences.”
But the Iranian leader also asserted that the “shortsighted interests of
warmongering pressure groups” in the United States had resulted in an
inconsistent American message on the nuclear dispute and other issues.
Mr. Rouhani restated Iran’s insistence that it would never pursue
nuclear weapons in its uranium enrichment program, saying, “this will
always be the position of Iran.”
But he offered no specific proposals to reach a compromise on the
nuclear dispute, which has led to Iran’s severe economic isolation
because of Western sanctions that have impaired its oil, banking and
manufacturing base.
The sanctions, he said, are “violent, pure and simple.”
The speech by Mr. Rouhani, a moderate cleric who is close to Iran’s
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, appeared partly aimed at his own
domestic audience and was his most prominent opportunity to explain his
views, following his election in June. His ascent came after eight
years of pugnacious saber-rattling by his hard-line predecessor, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, who regularly railed against the United States and Israel,
questioned the Holocaust and provoked annual walkouts by diplomats at
his General Assembly speeches.
There was no such mass walkout this time.
“We believe there are no violent solutions to world crises,” Mr. Rouhani said.
Mr. Rouhani’s visit to the United Nations has been widely anticipated
for any signs of the moderation and pragmatism that he said his
administration was bringing to Iran. But his speech still provoked
skepticism and criticism.
Thousands of anti-Rouhani demonstrators rallied outside the United
Nations headquarters, including members and sympathizers of the
Mujahedeen Khalq, an Iranian dissident group that is banned in Iran and
was removed from a State Department terrorist group list last year after
an aggressive lobbying effort in Washington.
Pro-Israel lawmakers and interest groups criticized Mr. Rouhani’s speech
as lacking specifics and echoing the themes Mr. Ahmadinejad had
espoused. “Those who expected a dramatic departure are disappointed,”
said Gary Samore, the president of United Against Nuclear Iran, a New
York-based group that has advocated for strong sanctions against the
country. “This address was surprisingly similar to what we are used to
hearing from Iran, both in tone and substance.”
Mr. Rouhani never once mentioned Israel by name in his speech, although
he did speak to what he called the violence perpetrated on the
Palestinians. “Palestine is under occupation,” he said. “The basic
rights of Palestinians are tragically violated.”
Israeli leaders, who have called Iran an existential threat to Israel,
have publicly criticized Mr. Rouhani as no different from others in the
Iranian government.
In a generic reference to Iran’s critics, Mr. Rouhani said they had
established what he called “propagandistic and unfounded faith-phobic,
Islamo-phobic, Shia-phobic and Iran-phobic discourses,” which he said
posed “serious threats against world peace and human security.”
Those who malign Iran, Mr. Rouhani said, “are either a threat against
international peace and security themselves or promote such a threat.”
“Iran poses absolutely no threat to the world or the region,” he said.
He concluded his speech with a reference to both the diversity and unity
of religions in their affirmation of peace and tolerance.
“My hope, aside from personal and national experience, emanates from the
belief shared by all divine religions that a good and bright future
awaits the world,” he said. “As stated in the Holy Koran: ‘And We
proclaimed in the Psalms, after We had proclaimed in the Torah, that My
virtuous servants will inherit the earth.'”
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