Tehran: The US should drop its “hostile” policies towards Iran, the country’s re-elected President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday.
In the past, “Iran and the US have experienced bends and turns in their relations, and the US has always failed in its policies, including exerting pressures and sanctions” against Iran, Rouhani said in his press conference following Friday’s landslide victory in the country’s presidential election.
“The Americans have also made mistakes in their attack on Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as their stance on Syria and Yemen,” he said.
Asked about the possibility of direct talks with the US over the mutual issues, the Iranian President said that “we are waiting for the US new administration to settle, so that we could have accurate view about the ruling group in Washington”.
The US has no other way but to think of “a win-win approach vis-a-vis Iran, otherwise they will fail,” he said.
On Monday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry also dismissed the recent anti-Iran claims by the US officials as “hostile and baseless,” the ministry’s website reported.
“The US president’s meddling, repetitive and baseless claims against Iran are aimed at Iranophobia and are in line with the US hostile policies against the Islamic republic (Iran), seeking to persuade the regional countries to buy more arms from the US,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said.
The US stance against Iran is “deceptive and destructive” and attempts to undermine the sovereignty of the regional states besides supporting Israel, Qasemi said.
“Unfortunately, some regional states are looking for the support of the superpowers instead of relying on their own nation and the potentials of regional cooperation,” he said, adding that such an approach will result in the destruction of the infrastructures of the regional countries, including Syria and Yemen, by the terrorist groups.
The Iranian spokesmen urged the US officials to stop, what he called, “rising tensions, intervention, Iranophobia, and selling weapons to the supporters of terrorism.”
During his visit to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, Trump called on the regional countries to isolate Iran which, he said, had “fuelled the fires of sectarian conflict and terror”.
Also, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said on Saturday that he hopes the re-election of Rouhani would prompt changes to Tehran’s approach to “terrorism and human rights.”
Tillerson urged Iran’s re-elected President to dismantle the alleged “network of terrorism” and to end ballistic missile tests.
He made the remarks at a news conference with Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in Riyadh.
On Monday, Rouhani, however, said that Iran will continue to test its missiles anytime if there is a “technical need”, and it will not seek the permission of any other country to do so.
“Our missiles are for defence and peace,” Rouhani said, adding that the US expectations from Iran to halt its defensive missile program is “an illusion”.
On Sunday, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Brig. Gen. Massoud Jazayeri, refuted Tillerson’s call for a policy shift in Tehran’s conduct during President Rouhani’s second term.
The only way to peace in the Middle East is a pull-out of the US forces from the region, Jazayeri said.
The US should end the “aggressive and terrorist operations against independent states” carried out with the assistance of “reactionary regimes” in the region, he said.
–IANS