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News ID: 32608
Publish Date : 23 October 2016 - 20:48

President: There Is No Morality in U.S.


TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday criticized the U.S. presidential candidates' behavior during their debates.
Speaking to a crowd during a visit to the central Iranian city of Arak, Rouhani said: "Did you see the debate and the way they were speaking, accusing and mocking each other? Do we want such a democracy and election in our country?"
Iran holds presidential elections in May 2017.
Rouhani said that during his September visit to the UN General Assembly, he was asked which of the candidates he preferred. "I said, what? Should I prefer bad to worse or worse to bad?" he said in comments broadcast live by state television.
"The U.S. claims to have 200 years of democracy… There is no morality in that country. We can see to what level they have scooped. You watched the presidential debates. Everybody saw the way they talked… Look at their discourse, accusations and belittlement!”
It was Rouhani's first public comment on the U.S. election.
The president also said world countries are today racing to promote relations with Iran instead of competing with each other to put pressure on the country.
"In previous years, there was a competition across the world for threatening Iran, exercising pressure on it, and subjecting it to sanctions. Today, there is, instead, a global competition for communications with Iran,” he said.
Over the past three years, the country has attracted more than $3.8 billion in foreign investment for 133 development projects, 58 of which have been completed, Rouhani noted.
"Ever since the conclusion of the JCPOA, $1.6 billion has found its way into the country in the form of foreign investment in the fields of mining and industry,” he said.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) was inked between Tehran and the P5+1 group of world powers, namely Russia, China, France, Britain, the US and Germany on July 14, 2015.
The accord, which took effect in January, ended decades of economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.
"The JCPOA is the result of Leader of the Islamic Revolution’s tactfulness, the Iranian nation’s 10- to 12-year-long resistance and the policy employed by the Islamic Republic’s establishment,” Rouhani asserted.
Separately, the president said the Islamic Republic supports any measures aimed at restoring stability to global oil markets.
"Iran supports any measure in line with the stabilization of the oil market, fair prices and equitable quota for the producers,” the Leader said in a meeting with visiting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro here on Saturday.
Rouhani further underlined the necessity of coordination and cooperation among all OPEC and non-OPEC oil producers in this regard.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Rouhani said that Latin America has a special place in Tehran’s foreign policy.
He expressed satisfaction with the expansion of relations between Iran and Venezuela, saying the development of cooperation with Latin American countries has always been of high significance to Iran.
The president also touched upon the scourge of terrorism in the world and called for a collective campaign by all countries against the ominous phenomenon.
He criticized certain countries for using terrorist groups as an instrument to achieve their goals.
Maduro, for his turn, said his country was determined to expand all-out cooperation with Iran.
He said that his government backs consultation between Tehran and Caracas to accelerate the implementation of agreements signed between the two sides.
Oil-exporting countries have been seeking a deal to cap production levels in an attempt to prevent a further drop in global oil prices, which in recent years saw a fall from a high of $147 a barrel to a low of around $25.
However, Saudi Arabia has torpedoed plans for a freeze on global production aimed at stabilizing oil markets, arguing that Iran must freeze its output.
Tehran, meanwhile, says that it wants to raise production to levels prior to the imposition of the U.S.-led sanctions over its nuclear energy program.