By Norman Muvavarirwa
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he would use his visit to the United Nations 68th General Assembly to present the “true face of Iran” and to pursue talks and cooperation with the West to end the nuclear dispute.
According to comments on his official website he said, “Unfortunately in recent years the face of Iran, a great and civilized nation, has been presented in another way,”
“I and my colleagues will take the opportunity to present the true face of Iran as a cultured and peace-loving country.”
The former nuclear negotiator Rouhani told the UN General Assembly on Tuesday that he was prepared to engage in “time-bound and results-oriented” talks on the nuclear issue.
Since 2006 Iran has negotiated with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council about Irans`s nuclear programme.
It is Rouhani`s wish to reach a deal with world powers on Tehran’s nuclear programme in three to six months.
“The shorter it is the more beneficial it is to everyone. If it’s three months that would be Iran’s choice, if it’s six months that’s still good. It’s a question of months not years” he said.
Rouhani said he was fully empowered by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to negotiate on the issue who spoke of “heroic flexibility,” suggesting a new willingness to engage in diplomacy with Iran’s adversaries.
On Thursday, he called for worldwide disarmament of nuclear weapons as “our highest priority.”
“No nation should possess nuclear weapons, since there are no right hands for these wrong weapons,” he told the first-ever meeting of a U.N. forum on nuclear disarmament.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague welcomed Iran’s statements of wanting to improve relations with the West and ease concerns about its nuclear program, but he said words alone would not be enough.
“The time is now right for those statements to be matched by concrete steps by Iran to address the international community’s concerns about Iran’s intentions and if such steps are taken, then I believe a more constructive relationship can be created between us,” Hague told reporters in New York .
After many years of hostility between the US and Iran, Rouhani said that if he and President Barack Obama got together they would both be “looking at the future”.
“The notes and letters and exchanges between us are in that direction, and they will continue,” he said.
“We need a beginning point. I think that is the nuclear issue.”
He added, “After resolution of the nuclear issue there are no impossibilities in term of advancing other things forward. Everything is possible after the settlement.”
The West suspects Tehran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon, a claim strongly denied by Iran.
President Obama has welcomed the new Iranian president’s more “moderate course”.
He said the US wanted to resolve the nuclear issue peacefully, but was determined to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran’s economy has been badly affected by years of sanctions imposed by the UN and Western countries over the nuclear issue.
The West suspects Iran of trying to build nuclear weapons and has imposed crippling sanctions on Tehran that have slashed its vital oil exports and severely restricted its international bank transfers.
As a result, inflation has risen and the value of the local currency has plunged.
Iran has repeatedly stated that its nuclear programme is strictly for energy needs and peaceful civilian purposes.
The Iranian President told NBC last week that Iran has “never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb and we are not going to do so.”
Rouhani, has attacked the West for the suffering caused by its sanctions. He has promised to improve Iran’s ailing economy, which has suffered deeply from the measures.
Mohammad Nahavandian, an economist and Rouhani’s chief of staff once said
“The economic effects of sanctions can’t be denied at all,” he said.
“Unfortunately, the pressure of sanctions is on the poorest sections of the society.”
According to some international media, officials even Rouhani’s top allies have sent the message that sanctions will not halt Iran’s nuclear programme despite the crippling hits which his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described as an “economic war” waged by the West.
“Regardless of pressure,” said Marzieh Afkham, spokeswoman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, “sanctions did not lead to a change of policy or change the path of people.”
President Hassan Rouhani, who took office in June, pledged during his election campaign to ease political and social restrictions both inside and outside of Iran, which has sparked speculation about possible movement on the nuclear issue.
The United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany participated in the talks with Iran at the U.N, with European Union Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton leading the talks
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