Iran’s Rouhani pushes back at Trump

KELEMEN: Macron says he is willing to talk about some other concerns he shares with the U.S. That includes Iran’s ballistic missile program, which was not covered by the agreement, and what happens next when the limits on the Iranian nuclear program are phased out.

“I look forward to discussing with you how we can address together what you rightly call the bad nuclear deal with Iran and how to roll back Iran’s growing aggression in the region, especially in Syria”, the prime minister added.

Rouhani’s predecessors and Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have said they regard the entirety of Israel as illegitimate.

The Iranian leader pointed to the deal’s economic benefits, worldwide backing for the pact and the potential fallout if the deal is undermined.

But in correspondence with congressional leaders, senior National Security Council officials said it would be “highly unlikely” that they could orchestrate such a briefing before late October, or even early November.

Iran rejects that it has broken the agreement, and a United Nations report this month pointed to no Iranian violations.

Trump said Wednesday he has decided how he is going to proceed on the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration that he has long derided.

In response, Rouhani lashed out at “ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric” in Trump’s United Nations speech.

“The exiting of the United States from such an agreement would carry a high cost, meaning that subsequent to such an action by the United States of America, no one will trust America again”, he told told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview set to air later Tuesday. “I think these things go together, and we look forward to talking about how we can advance both”.

“I’ve been suffering a lot, me and my family back home in Iran, and I am hoping for a democracy in Iran one day”, said Golshan, who’s 57. She offered to help negotiate a solution similar to that reached with Iran.

US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said earlier this month that while the deal limits Iran’s nuclear enrichment, its development of missile technology is part of a separate United Nations resolution. Any military intervention created to eliminate the North’s nuclear and missile arsenal would nearly surely entail dire risks for US allies in the region, particularly South Korea, lying in range of the North’s vast stockpiles of weaponry. Trump, a businessman and former reality TV star whose first elected office is the presidency, told reporters.

Mr Trump’s speech laid out a vision for a world filled with sovereign states which worked for the betterment of their citizens – but he spent large portions targeting what he called “rogue nations” which are “the scourge of our planet today”.

“We do need the support of our allies, our European allies and others, to make the case as well to Iran that this deal really needs to be revisited”, he told Fox.

French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in NY “it would be a mistake to annul the nuclear agreement without anything else”.

It wasn’t clear if Trump had made a final decision to leave or stick with the Iran deal. Rouhani also made indirect reference to political ramifications inside Iran that could ripple globally if the deal fails.

“Rocket Man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime”, the USA president told the UN General Assembly hall.

“On the other (hand), domestic politics very much drives Iran’s relationship with the U.S., and Rouhani has a big hard-line contingency among the country’s elite who fear the USA wants a regime change that he has to consider”.

Denying certification could lead the U.S.to reintroduce sanctions, which in turn could lead Iran to walk away from the deal or restart some nuclear activities it curtailed two years ago.

France, Russia, and Germany, however, rejected Trump’s criticisms, defending a deal that they claim has worked to bolster global security.

A collapse of the 2015 deal, which U.S. President Donald Trump has called “an embarrassment” but which is supported by the other major powers that negotiated it with Iran, could trigger a regional arms race and worsen Middle East tensions. “We have to keep the 2015 agreement because it was a good one”, he told reporters.