Rouhani: Withdrawal from region serves US own interests, restores regional security

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has warned the United States to end its military intervention in the region, saying such a withdrawal will both help restore regional security and serve Washington’s own interests.

The “intolerable” insecurity currently afflicting the region menaces Asia, Europe, and even America itself as it can lead to all sorts of incidents, Rouhani told the cabinet session on Wednesday.

The American forces in the region are today faced with insecurity, which may come to threaten the European troops as well in the near future, he added.

“Restore this security. We want you to leave the region… not by means of war, but by taking the wise move [to do so],” he said. “You [yourself] will stand to benefit from this. Go down the path that benefits the region and the entire world,” the president added.

He also touched on the Islamic Republic’s recent strikes against US bases in western and northern Iraq, which came in retaliation for the US assassination of revered Iranian commander, Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, among others, in Baghdad on January 3.

“General Soleimani’s martyrdom will not go unanswered. The military response was given,” he said, noting that the strikes that hit the US’s Ain al-Assad Airbase in Iraq’s Anbar Province showed that “we do not back down in the face of the US and will surely respond to their crime.”

Apart from the military retaliation, Rouhani suggested, the real response would be a collective endeavor by regional countries towards the US departure from the region.

'Plane crash error should not happen again'

Rouhani also addressed the human error that caused the downing of a Ukrainian passenger aircraft shortly after take-off from Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Airport last week.

The jetliner was mistaken for an incoming cruise missile, while a communication breakdown prevented the operator from obtaining the permission required for the launch. It killed all 176 people on board.

“Our people and the world need to be assured that this incident will never be repeated,” the president asserted.

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Rouhani said the General Staff of the Armed Forces acted appropriately in announcing the cause of the tragedy, but that the Armed Forces ought to follow it up with rectifying measures.

“A final step,” he added, would be making sure that the mistake would never happen again.

However, efforts aimed at making up for the error should not serve to weaken the country's military, he said. “We need and will always need our Armed Forces.”

The president, meanwhile, said that the delay in informing the public about the circumstances surrounding the crash came due to the fact that the cause of the crash had not been initially “plausible.”

“No one could believe that an aircraft taking off from an international airport in the capital, and flying on its route would be targeted,” Rouhani said. The Armed Forces, he added, need to also apologize to the public for the belated dissemination of information.

He said a first compensatory measure could be to “diligently” follow up on the issue through legal channels with the participation of the Judiciary, the government, and the Armed Forces.

On Iran deal

Elsewhere, the chief executive urged the trio of European countries — France, Britain and Germany — and the US to live up to their obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), a nuclear deal that they signed with Tehran in 2015.

The US under President Donald Trump left the deal in May 2018 and restored the sanctions that it had lifted. The UK, France, and Germany also bowed to the sanctions and refused to meet Iran’s business interests under the deal despite an earlier pledge to do so.

Rouhani said Washington is responsible for killing hundreds of Iranians through the sanctions it has been imposing on the country since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, including the ones that have blocked the Islamic Republic’s access to medicine and medical equipment.

The president added that the countermeasures that Iran has been taking in response to the US and the Europeans’ non-commitment are both reversible and taking place under the International Atomic Energy Agency's supervision.

The comments came a day after the European trio triggered a dispute mechanism within the deal that enables them to accuse Iran of violating it and could lead to the return of the UN sanctions which had been lifted by the JCPOA.

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Tehran warns that the launch by France, Britain and Germany of a dispute resolution mechanism under the 2015 nuclear deal will have consequences.

On Tuesday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson even suggested that the JCPOA be discarded in favor of a “Trump deal.”

“What is he [Johnson] thinking of?...Trump does nothing but violate international agreements,” the president said.

Rouhani said by continued betrayal of their commitments, the Europeans and the US would only exacerbate the situation in the region, adding, “You will suffer if you take a wrong move.”

The US quit the JCPOA after Trump was told by Israel, Saudi Arabia, and radical American politicians that they would bring about regime change in Iran after the withdrawal, Rouhani noted.

However, the move was followed by the US’s own defeat in the region, he said. “Today, it has become apparent to everyone that you made the wrong move concerning the JCPOA.”

“If you return [from your mistakes] and act in the interest of regional security, we are prepared [for reciprocal measures,] too,” he noted.

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