The 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly witnessed a heated confrontation between Iran and the United States over sanctions and combating terrorism, and while US President Donald Trump launched an attack on Iran and boasted of killing the former commander of the Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani stressed that US sanctions would not make his country submit.
In his video speech on Tuesday, Trump said that his administration withdrew from what he described as the terrible Iranian nuclear deal, and also worked to combat what he called terrorism and to achieve peace in the world.
He added that his country imposed massive sanctions on what he described as the first state sponsor of terrorism in the world, in reference to Iran.
He also said that his country got rid of what he called the number one terrorist in the world, Qassem Soleimani, who was killed earlier this year along with the deputy head of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Authority and others in an American raid as they left Baghdad airport.
Trump had previously said that when he wins a second presidential term, he will quickly conclude an agreement with Iran, and his administration wants to replace the 2015 agreement that it withdrew from in May 2018 with another that imposes severe restrictions on Iran's nuclear and missile programs, and stops its support for armed groups linked to it in the region.
And last Sunday, the US President reimposed the sanctions imposed by the United Nations on Iran, after Washington had failed to persuade the UN Security Council to extend the arms embargo on Iran, which expires in the middle of next month.
Rouhani responds.
In return, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that the United States could not impose on his country neither war nor negotiations.
Rouhani added in a videoconference at the current session of the United Nations General Assembly that his country is not a bargaining chip in the US elections.
Trump described the nuclear deal with an Iranian as terrible (Reuters)
Rouhani spoke in a challenging tone about the Trump administration's policy towards his country, including the imposition of unprecedented sanctions, saying, "It is time to say no to bullying and arrogance, the era of hegemony is over."
He also responded to Trump's accusations against Iran about terrorism by saying that he who boasts about fighting terrorism is his creation.
The Iranian president said that the winner of the upcoming US presidential election will have no choice but to bow to Iran's demands for the lifting of US sanctions.
Iran has repeatedly announced that it will not conduct any negotiations with the United States unless it lifted sanctions and reverts to the original nuclear deal.
And Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said earlier that his country deserves compensation for Washington's withdrawal from the nuclear deal and its re-imposition of sanctions on his country.
Zarif added that the nuclear agreement is still alive, stressing his country's refusal to negotiate it again.
Tehran considered the US President’s decision to re-impose UN sanctions on it outside the framework of the Security Council as a threat to global security and regional stability.
European-American divergence
Parallel to the verbal bickering between Trump and Rouhani, the divergence in positions between European countries and the United States regarding the nuclear deal with Iran and the policy that must be adopted towards it was evident.
In this context, French President Emmanuel Macron affirmed that France, Germany and Britain would not "give up" their refusal to support the reinstatement of UN sanctions against Iran after the United States took the initiative to do so.
Macron said that the United States is not in a position to activate the UN sanctions mechanism after its withdrawal from the nuclear agreement, warning that this step could harm the unity of the Security Council and the integrity of its decisions.
He added that France, Britain and Germany will continue to demand full implementation of the 2015 Vienna Agreement on the Iranian nuclear program, and will not accept the violations committed by Iran.
On the other hand, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused the Europeans of not making any effort to prevent arms trade with Iran by refusing to support Washington’s decision to re-impose UN sanctions on Tehran.
In exchange for the criticisms expressed by the European countries participating in the nuclear deal, in addition to Russia and China, Pompeo considered that if his country had not returned to impose UN sanctions on Iran, the latter would have purchased weapons, tanks and air defense systems within a few weeks.