President Donald Trump says he won’t meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani during his time at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week, but laid on the flattery saying he’s sure his fellow leader is ‘absolutely lovely man!’
Relations are tense between the U.S. and Iran after Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed economic sanctions.
Trump claims there were requests for a meeting but the Iranian president said the economic sanctions precluded any sit down.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani addresses the Nelson Mandela Peace Summit in New York on Monday
President Trump left open the possibility of a meeting with Iran
The president did leave open the possibility of their meeting.
‘Despite requests, I have no plans to meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. Maybe someday in the future. I am sure he is an absolutely lovely man!,’ Trump wrote on Twitter Tuesday morning.
But Rouhani accused the U.S. of creating a hostile atmosphere between the two nations.
‘There is no such program for a meeting. Mr. Trump did not create conditions necessary to bring about the atmosphere conducive to a meeting,’ Rouhani told NBC News.
‘Naturally, if someone is keen on having a meeting and holding dialogue and creating progress in relationships, that person would not use the tool of sanctions and threats [and bring] to bear all of its power against another government and nation,’ he said. ‘That means that the necessary willpower is absent in order to resolve outstanding issues.’
Iran’s currency has fallen in the wake of economic sanctions and the U.S. threat of cutting off its oil exports.
Trump and his team had left open the possibility of a sit down. At last year’s UN meeting, the president had reportedly requested a meeting but had been rebuffed. In his speech to the general assembly in 2017 he painted Iran as a ‘murderous regime’ focused on the ‘pursuit of death and destruction.’
Rouhani indicated to NBC the U.S. needs to repair the damage done by its exit of he 2015 nuclear deal.
‘That bridge must be rebuilt in order for both countries to be able to set programs for such conducive atmosphere and for their mutual futures,’ he said.
He also brushed aside any threat of U.S. sanctions, saying the country’s oil exports could not be cut off.
‘The United States is not capable of bringing our oil exports to zero,’ Rouhani said.
‘It’s a threat that is empty of credibility. Perhaps on this path, we will sustain certain pressures but certainly the United States will not reach its objective,’ he said.
The 2015 nuclear deal – signed by the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – imposed strict limits on Iran’s nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions on the country.
Trump flattered Rouhani in his tweet
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (right) has been meeting with other world leaders, such as Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Trump withdrew the U.S. from the pact in May and reimplemented economic sanctions in August. The United States plans to reintroduce sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas industry on Nov. 4.
Rouhani, during his time in New York, is meeting with other world leaders to talk about how to get around those sanctions. Leaders of China, Turkey, India and other nations are requesting waivers in order to have access to Iranian oil.
He won reelection in 2017 in part on his platform of reopening negotiations with the West.
Iran has also been central to the Trump’s policy on Syria.
National Security Adviser John Bolton told the Associated Press on Monday that U.S. troops will remain in Syria as long as Iranian troops are deployed outside of Iran.
Rouhani said Iranian troops were in Syria at the request of its government.
‘Our presence in Syria has only to do with the will of the Syrian government. From the very beginning when we entered Syria was based upon the invitation of the Syrian government, based upon which we sent our military advisors there. And our fight was focused against terrorists,’ he told NBC.
He also said they are willing to leave once a settlement was in place.
‘Whenever terrorists are defeated in Syria and terrorism ceases to exist in Syria, and the government of Syria has no need for us, then at that point our continued presence in Syria will not have any meaning or serve any purpose,’ he said.
Rouhani indicated to journalists on Monday that Iran would not be exiting Syria any time soon.
‘We will be in Syria until terrorism is completely eradicated,’ he said, and as long as Iran remained invited there by the Syrian government, according to The New York Times.
‘The U.S. sees a right for itself to have a presence in the region,’ he said, referring to the Middle East. But it ‘does not recognize the right for Iran.’