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Hassan Rouhani

From Rangarirai Shoko in NEW YORK, United States
IRANIAN President Hassan Rouhani, in his maiden address to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, denied his country was pursuing a nuclear bomb, and offered an olive branch to the United States, Teheran’s longstanding foe. Washington suspects Iran of developing nuclear weapons, and has together with its European allies imposed economic sanctions on Teheran to force it to give up the suspected ambition.

But Rouhani, who was elected two months ago, said nuclear armaments do not have “a place in Iran’s security and defence doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions.”

He insisted that they were pursuing a civilian nuclear programme, and offered talks with the United States and other major powers on the issue without pre-conditions.

“Iran’s nuclear programme — and for that matter, that of all other countries — must pursue exclusively peaceful purposes.
“I declare here, openly and unambiguously that, notwithstanding the positions of others, this has been, and will always be, the objective of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” he said.

“Nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction have no place in Iran’s security and defence doctrine, and contradict our fundamental religious and ethical convictions.

Our national interests make it imperative that we remove any and all reasonable concerns about Iran’s peaceful nuclear programme,” he added.

But Rouhani considered a moderate, said Teheran will not negotiate away its rights to civilian nuclear technology in the name of rapprochement with the United States or other powers.

Nor will Iran curve in to Western pressure, applied through illegal economic sanctions, over its pursuit of a civilian nuclear programme, he said.

“Nuclear knowledge in Iran has been domesticated now and the nuclear technology, inclusive of enrichment, has already reached industrial scale.

“It is, therefore, an illusion, and extremely unrealistic, to presume that the peaceful nature of the nuclear programme of Iran could be ensured through impeding the programme via illegitimate pressures,” he said.

He said rapprochement with the United States and other powers will have to be based ‘on mutual respect and common interest’ to succeed, and implored Washington to drop its previous short-sightedness in its dealings with Iran.

“Iran seeks constructive engagement with other countries based on mutual respect and common interest, and within the same framework does not seek to increase tensions with the United States,” Rouhani said.

“Commensurate with the political will of the leadership in the United States, and hoping that they will refrain from following the short-sighted interest of warmongering pressure groups, we can arrive at a framework to manage our differences,” he said.

He said old hegemonic tendencies by Western powers, done to globalise the values of the West, were driving the world to terrorism, instability and a dangerous breakdown in international law.

He cited conflicts in the Middle East, North Africa and other parts of the world, as example of instability caused by Western hegemony.
“Coercive economic and military policies and practices geared to the maintenance and preservation of old superiorities and dominations have been pursued in a conceptual mindset that negates peace, security, human dignity, and exalted human ideals,” he said.

“Ignoring differences between societies and globalising Western values as universal ones represent another manifestation of this conceptual mindset. Yet another reflection of the same cognitive model is the persistence of Cold War mentality and bi-polar division of the world into superior us and inferior others,” Rouhani said. — New Ziana