TEHRAN – Iranian President Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi has said that he has no plans to hold negotiations or meetings with the American side during his trip to New York. 

Ayatollah Raisi spoke to reporters in Tehran before leaving for New York to participate in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly. After a short statement about his plans in New York, the Iranian president left Tehran for New York on Monday morning. 

Ayatollah Raisi was officially seen off at the airport by the First Vice-President and Advisor to the Supreme Leader in International Affairs, as well as a group of cabinet members.

During this trip, in addition to his speech at the United Nations General Assembly and the meeting of the UNESCO, the president will also meet and discuss with a number of heads of countries participating in the General Assembly and will have other side meetings as well.

In the last days of last week, Raisi had a three-day trip to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in order to participate in the 22nd meeting of the heads of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, to pursue the establishment of a fair international order through economic multilateralism, and in this regard, on the sidelines of this meeting, he met and talked with 10 heads of countries present in Samarkand, including Russia, China and India.

Before leaving for New York Raisi elaborated on the goals of his trip. “This visit is happening at the invitation of the Secretary General of the United Nations and to participate in the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly,” he said, according to the official website of the Iranian presidency.

He described attending this meeting as an opportunity to express the rational and logical views of the Islamic Republic of Iran and stated, “Because the media environment in the world is dominated by major world powers and the system of domination, these opportunities should be used to explain the positions of the Islamic Republic of Iran and express the atrocities that have been committed against the great nation of Iran.”

Ayatollah Raisi stated that today human societies suffer from oppression and injustice and added, “Attending the meeting of the United Nations General Assembly and explaining these oppressions and injustices can actually be one of the manifestations of the explanation jihad.”
Explaining his other plans for this trip, the president stated, “We will have bilateral meetings with the leaders of some countries on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.”

President Raisi emphasized, "There are no plans to negotiate or meet with the Americans during this trip, and we have no plans to meet with them.”

Raisi listed the meeting with Iranians living in America as another part of his trip to New York and said, “The principle of attending this summit and conducting meetings will be in line with the foreign policy of the Islamic Republic, which is based on honor, wisdom and expediency.”

President Raisi noted, “Thanks to the blood of the martyrs and the Iranian nation's resistance against threats and sanctions, we will have a powerful presence there as a great civilization center and on behalf of a nation with dignity.”

Ayatollah Raisi pointed out that we will defend the rights of the great nation of Iran without stuttering, and we will explain the atrocities and corruptions that afflict the world, adding, “I hope that this visit can be the symbol of people's trust and have effects for our country and system and for the Muslim nations and the underprivileged around the world.”

Also, President Raisi conducted two interviews before going to New York. In these interviews, he expanded on the state of the talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. 

“The subject of our discussion and expectation from the Vienna talks is the lifting of the oppressive sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this agreement, it was the Islamic Republic of Iran that fulfilled its commitment. The International Atomic Energy Agency has announced nearly 15 times that the Islamic Republic of Iran has fulfilled its commitments and that Iran's nuclear activities are peaceful,” he said in an interview with Al Jazeera.

He added, “It was the Americans who withdrew from the agreement and it was the European countries that did not fulfil their obligations. In Vienna, we pursued the issue of lifting sanctions and of course emphasized that any agreement should be accompanied by a guarantee. The reason for demanding a guarantee is that the other side violated the agreement in the agreement, and now naturally there should be trust that they will not violate the agreement again; So guarantee is necessary.”

Raisi noted, “Also, removal of sanctions should be accompanied with the resolution of safeguards. If political and baseless accusations against Islamic Republic of Iran are to stay, the agreement will have no effect and use. Because it is possible that the parties to the agreement, as they proposed a resolution to the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency during the negotiations, may create problems again by abusing the existing influence and connections they have. So, we should finalise these safeguard issues. Regarding the guarantees, if we have the trustworthy guarantees, and we have the lasting removal of the sanctions, not temporary removal of sanctions, and if there is a lasting solution for the safeguard issues, for sure it is possible to reach agreement. Now, it is the Americans who have to decide, because they were the ones who violated the treaty. They withdrew from JCPOA and now they have to decide to stick to their commitment.”

Responding to a question on what is preventing a deal in Vienna, Raisi said, “What is preventing the final agreement is the commitment that the Americans have to give; We announced our position. Our negotiating team is still at the negotiation table and we have stated many times that we will stick to a fair and good agreement, but the Americans must decide. This is actually the problem of Americans who have to decide what they want to do! Although sanctions may cause problems for any country, the Islamic Republic has shown that sanctions have not and will not stop it in any way. We started the process of growth and development of the country and we plan to continue this process and we will not stop the progress of the country in any way, because our nation is a strong-willed and powerful nation and has the ability to turn threats to opportunities. We have done this before in many instances.”

Responding to a separate question on the issue of guarantees, Raisi said, “The guarantees announced by the West should be reassuring for the Islamic Republic. You should give the Islamic Republic the right to ask for a guarantee, because it is not dealing with the country or countries that have fulfilled their agreement, but with the American who violated the agreement and they themselves admit that they violated the agreement. When they themselves admit that they violated the agreement, it is naturally necessary for them to provide guarantees so that we can somehow trust them with an agreement.”