President Raisi Tells UN General Assembly:

Iran Cannot Trust U.S. Without Guarantees

Date: 21 September 2022 - 22:00

News ID: ۱۰۷۱۷۹

NEW YORK (Dispatches) – President Ebrahim Raisi said Wednesday Iran serious about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal but questioned whether it could trust America’s commitment to any eventual accord.
In 2018, former U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from a deal brokered by the Obama administration. That has led Tehran to abandon over time every limitation the accord imposed on its nuclear enrichment.
President Raisi addressed the UN General Assembly as talks to revive the nuclear deal approached a take-it-or-leave-it moment.
“Our wish is only one thing: observance of commitments,” Raisi said, noting it was the U.S. that pulled out of the accord.
He asked whether Iran can “truly trust without guarantees and assurances” that the U.S. will live up to its commitments this time.
European Union officials have warned the window for securing a deal is about to close.
“America trampled upon the nuclear accord,” said Raisi, who was sworn in as president only a year ago. His speech marks the first time he has taken the podium at the UN in his role as president. Last year, he delivered remarks to the assembly virtually due to COVID-19 restrictions.
He also blasted what he said was lopsided scrutiny of Iran’s nuclear energy program while the nuclear weapons program of the occupying regime of Israel remains secret.
Raisi also told the gathered leaders that Iran wants to have “extensive relations with all our neighbors” — an apparent reference to foe Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries in the region.
Saudi Arabia and Iran have held a number of direct talks since U.S. President Joe Biden took office, though tensions remain high between the two. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates recent reopened

its embassy in Tehran and sent an ambassador there.

Raisi also deplored sanctions imposed on Iran, calling them a “punishment on the people of Iran.”

The president called for the prosecution of former U.S. president Donald Trump, vowing that Iran will pursue the assassination of the country’s top anti-terror commander General Qassem Soleimani.

Raisi hailed Iran’s “prominent and progressive” role in confronting high-handed and interventionist policies, including U.S. -crafted terrorism.

He said thanks to General Soleimani’s commandership, Iran managed to frustrate the plots that were aimed at changing the demographic structure of the regional countries.

“We are going to follow up a just prosecution of the former American president’s atrocity through a just court,” Raisi asserted.

The assassination, directly ordered by Trump, occurred near Baghdad airport on January 3, 2020. It also martyred the general’s companions, including deputy commander of Iraq’s anti-terror Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis.

Both Soleimani and al-Muhandis were highly revered across the Middle East because of their key role in fighting the Daesh terrorists in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria.

“The commander and the hero of this war against terrorism, and Daesh’s destroyer was no one, but Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani,” Raisi said.

The president praised General Soleimani as the person, who was martyred in the path of bringing about the liberation of the nations of the region.

President Raisi said a just prosecution of Trump would do humanity a service.

“We will pursue justice and trial of the person who perpetrated it, and the one, who advised it, through a just court until a definite result is reached.”