Rouhani: Iran Wants Improvement of Ties with World

 

President Hassan Rouhani underlined here Sunday that Iran wants improvement of ties with the world based on its independent foreign policy.

President Rouhani made the remarks after attending the Mausoleum of the late Imam Khomeini downtown Tehran to renew allegiance with the Father of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iran’s success in nuclear talks with P5+1 and removal of sanctions was the result of people’s vote in 2013 presidential elections, he added.

Rouhani congratulated coincidence of victory of Islamic Revolution annual ceremonies with the country’s success in nuclear talks.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the President advised the Guardian Council to prepare the ground for large turnout of people in the upcoming February legislative and Assembly of Experts elections.

 

Nothing should be able to dash ‘our hope,’ saying people’s presence in the elections is instrumental, he added.

‘We should not abandon the ballot boxes under any conditions,’ stressed the President.

Parliamentary elections will be held in Iran on 26 February 2016 to elect both the Islamic Consultative Assembly and the Assembly of Experts. It will be the first time, the members of two bodies are elected simultaneously.

Leader’s support of the government in nuclear talks as well as his stress on respecting people’s vote as a divine duty was important to improvement of the country’s situation, President Rouhani said.

He added that independence of Iran’s foreign policy does not mean that it wants to be isolated from the rest of the world.

Freedom of speech has been recognized by the Islamic Republic and people are free to elect and decide about their destiny, the President said.

 

Rouhani referred to the late Imam remarks and said both democracy and theocracy is inseparable parts of the Islamic Republic identity.

Time not ripe for talking on extent of JCPOA benefits, says Zarif

On the other hand, Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif said on Saturday today is not the right time to discuss about the amount of Iran’s success in signing the Joint comprehensive Plan of Action.

‘Any agreement necessitates a series of gives and takes, unless one side will fully yield, which will be an agreement that will never last to be remembered in history,’ said Zarif in a conference titled Iran’s Opportunities in Post-JCPOA Era, attended by some members of political parties, occupational syndicates, religious minorities, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and media reporters.

Zarif said he believes in the whole and keeping in mind those gives and take, Iran did not lose, but those gives and takes are not finalized yet and it is now time for using the capabilities of our headquarters, not the time for repeating the intakes and outputs.

‘Today conditions are provided to cash what we have managed to gain, which is to say, to use them,’ he said.

Addressing the critics of the JCPOA, the foreign minister said: ‘You believe we have gained 10 out of 100, but I might believe we have gained 80 out of 100 and yet someone else might argue that we have gained 95%, which are all alright.’

‘If we will not use that 95% or whatever, we will enter the course of a dispute, and in that case we will gain nothing out of the JCPOA,’ he added.

Zarif said that in that case all the energy of the Iranians will be spent in internal disputes and trying to defame each other.

‘I feel ashamed to say that under such conditions that in an official visit of our country’s president the French officials observe the highest possible ceremonial rituals while some friends who try to defame this government and pursue other objectives say how come the French foreign minister received him,’ he added.

Addressing those critics, Zarif said: ‘Look at the backgrounds and do not say that an unusual thing has happened. Search for when the Indian prime minister or the Russian president visited France. How were they received?’

Zarif also set example of the official reception ceremonies of heads of states in Iran which are held in Saadabad Place, not at the airport.

‘Why do some people irrationally defame the Iranian nation’s prestige and turn it into humiliation?’ he asked.

He proposed looking at the emerged opportunities for Iran on the one hand and considering the situation in which Iran would have been put into if there were no nuclear negotiations, or if they had failed.

IRNA

R.S