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Sour conclusion to UN Assembly as Trump denies making Iran offer
mIddLe east
IRANIAN President Hassan Rouhani claimed on September 27 that the US this week offered to drop all sanctions on Iran in exchange for nuclear deal negotiations.
US President Donald Trump swiftly rebutted the claim, tweeting that it was in fact Iran that suggested such a quid pro quo and that he responded “Of course, NO!”
“The German chancellor, the prime minister of England and the president of France were in New York [for the annual United Nations Gen- eral Assembly] and all insisted that this meeting take place. And America says that it will lift the sanctions,” Rouhani said on his official website. “It was up for debate what sanctions will be lifted and they [the United States] had said clearly that we will lift all sanctions.”
The US State Department called the claims “baseless,” adding that the US was absolutely committed to upholding its sanctions regime, which includes a strategy of attempting to drive all Iranian crude oil exports off world markets.
Wary of photo opportunity
Iran has been wary of entering into any face to face talks with Trump, saying that it was likely that the US president just wanted a foreign policy photo opportunity. Tehran also often attacks the character of Trump, saying he is not somebody that could ever be trusted.
The line taken by the Iranians in recent weeks is that there will be no bilateral talks with the US, but if Washington was to lift the sanctions it would receive an invitation to enter multilat- eral talks with the remaining signatories of the nuclear deal, namely Iran, the UK, France, Ger- many, China and Russia.
While he was in New York, Rouhani was par- ticularly urged by French President Emmanuel Macron to take the opportunity to meet Trump.
Rouhani said he relented to the extent of meeting some US officials at the insistence of France, the UK and Germany but was not minded to explore the US offer to drop sanctions in return for a meeting with Trump because of the “toxic atmosphere”.
After it became clear there was zero chance of any meeting, Trump, who dismissed Macron’s attempts at mediation, announced he had authorised officials to bar senior Iranian officials and family members from entering the US as immigrants or non-immigrants.
Rouhani responded to that move by saying it had no impact as “Iranian officials have no desire to travel to America.” He added: “We only come here for the UN events.”
Iran wants Un hQ moved
Fox News on September 26 reported that Rou- hani told a press conference that his country’s delegation would vote for the UN headquarters to be moved out of New York if given the chance.
“If we’re ever asked, we will, of course, vote for it, for the United Nations headquarters to be transferred to a more secure and better country that does not have the narrow viewpoints that we havebeenwitnessing,”hewasreportedassaying in response to a question from a reporter.
Opting not to go for an instant military response to the September 24 drone and cruise missile attacks that wiped out half of Saudi Ara- bia’s oil processing capacity – blamed on Iran by the US and Europe’s major powers, which describe Tehran’s contention that the strikes were mounted by Houthi forces fighting Sau- di-backed forces in Yemen’s civil war as implau- sible – the US continued tightening the sanctions screw even while Rouhani was in New York.
Some of the new sanctions have been imposed on Chinese entities and people sus- pected of transferring oil from Iran. Beijing on September 27 reacted to the move by accusing Washington of “bullying”, saying China’s coop- eration with Iran is legitimate and legal.
erdogan blow
In another blow to the attempt by the US to crip- ple Iran’s economy to the point where the Irani- ans will negotiate a new nuclear deal, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said that it was impossible for the Turks to stop buying oil and natural gas from neighbouring Iran, and added that trade between Iran and Turkey would con- tinue (see next story).
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Week 39 01•October•2019