UN ideal platform to portray Iran’s real image
The United Nations General Assembly is an ideal platform for President Hassan Rouhani to present “the real image and strategies” of the country, an international affairs expert said.
“Under the prevailing circumstances when the Western mainstream media have dominated the free flow of information through its biased and partial news agencies and think tanks, the president can use the UN platform to present the real image of the Islamic Republic to the world,” Shahram Fattahi said on Monday.
Fattahi said it is vital for the president to be present at the UN as the US is trying to use the platform to forge an international consensus against Iran.
US President Donald Trump takes the podium at the UN General Assembly on Tuesday where he is expected to unleash his anti-iran rhetoric.
Rouhani will take the podium shortly after Trump – a speech that would probably center on the Trump’s decision to scrap the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers.
On Wednesday, Trump will, for the first time, chair a Security Council meeting on non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction that will focus heavily on Iran – likely triggering a clash with other big powers.
“It will be the most watched Security Council meeting ever,” US Ambassador Nikki Haley said of Trump’s first time wielding the gavel.
Refraining from rhetoric
Fattahi said the president should not get entangled in “emotive rhetoric” when he addresses the assembly and instead should present Iran’s positions in how to deal with today’s world problems.
He also called on the president to hold the US accountable as “it has violated a UN Security Council resolution.”
He was referring to the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was endorsed by the UN Resolution 2231.
Negotiations with US?
The expert also said that the recent US gestures to offer talks with Iran at the current level of mistrust between the two states would not be a “rational” approach, yielding no specific results.
“Accepting (the US offer of) negotiations is not rational,” Fattahi said, adding that the offer runs counter to Iran’s national interests and would only be “a humiliation” for the country ultimately.
Pointing to the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei’s stance on banning any negotiations with the US, he said that the chance of any talks with US officials during Rouhani’s meetings on the sidelines of UN General Assembly remains very slim.
Trump said in July that he would be willing to meet with Iranian leaders without preconditions. The comments marked an abrupt shift in tone from his past comments about Tehran, including one just days earlier in which he warned Rouhani against threatening the US.
Trump has also said he would be willing to meet Iranian leaders, and the UN gathering is a possible venue. But Iran’s Leader in August rejected talks “at any level” with the US.
“I ban holding any talks with the US. It never remains loyal to its promises in talks,” Ayatollah Khamenei said at the time.
The United States special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, has also said that the US would give “unprecedented package of incentives” to Tehran if it stops what he called “destructive regional policy” and returns to negotiating table.
Fattahi, however, rejected Hook’s offer, branding it as a “diplomatic show”.
He also said that the US “increasing bullying” even towards European countries as well as China and Russia means that Trump’s “America First” policy would only lead to the isolation of “lonely power”.