Iran offers peace plan as US deploys troops
Iranian leader denounces foreign forces as source of pain, misery
Tehran—president Hassan Rouhani on Sunday denounced the presence of foreign forces in the Persian Gulf and said Iran would proffer a peace plan at the United Nations in the coming days.
Rouhani is expected to outline his plan at the UN General Assembly that starts on Wednesday.
“Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region,” Rouhani said in a televised speech at an annual military parade.
“In this sensitive and important historical moment, we announce to our neighbors that we extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to them,” he said.
“We are even ready to ignore their past mistakes ... since today the situation is such that the enemies of Islam and the region, meaning America and Zionism, want to abuse the rift between us,” Rouhani said.
“Our logic is the logic of a Persian Gulf whose security comes from within,” the Iranian president said.
Foreign powers stay away
Rouhani called on the foreign powers in the Gulf region to “stay away.”
“Your presence has always brought pain and misery for the region. The farther you keep yourselves from our region and our nations, the more security there will be for our region,” he said.
Following his speech, the Iranian armed forces paraded their latest equipment, including tanks, missiles and armored vehicles as Rouhani and top military commanders saluted them.
Tensions have escalated in the Persian Gulf in the wake of Sept. 14 attacks on Saudi oil installations that Washington and Riyadh have blamed on Tehran.
The attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco’s Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil field halved the kingdom’s oil output.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, but the United States said it had concluded the attacks involved cruise missiles from Iran and amounted to “an act of war.”
On Friday, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper announced the deployment of troops to Saudi Arabia at “the kingdom’s request,” stressing that the forces would be “defensive in nature” and focused on air and missile defense.
No limited confrontation
The following day, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami, said Iran would pursue any aggressor, even if it carried out a limited attack, and seek to destroy it.
“Be careful, a limited aggression will not remain limited. We will pursue any aggressor,” Salami said in remarks broadcast on state TV. “We are after punishment and we will continue until the full destruction of any aggressor.”
Amirali Hajizadeh, who heads the Revolutionary Guards’ aerospace branch, said any attacks on Iran would receive “a crushing response,” the official news agency Irna (Islamic Republic News Agency) reported.
Desperate acts
Iran’s foreign minister meanwhile denounced renewed US sanctions.
The United States on Friday imposed more sanctions, targeting the Central Bank of Iran, which was already under US sanctions, the National Development Fund of Iran—the country’s sovereign wealth fund—and an Iranian company.
“This is a sign of US desperation ... When they repeatedly sanction the same institution, this means their attempt at bringing the Iranian nation to its knees under ‘maximum pressure’ has failed,” Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said.
“But this is dangerous and unacceptable as an attempt at blocking ... the Iranian people’s access to food and medicine,” Zarif said, speaking after arriving in New York for the UN assembly.
Zarif said he would meet on Wednesday foreign ministers of the remaining signatories to the 2015 nuclear accord, which was agreed with Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia as well as the United States.