President Rouhani arrives in New York for UN General Assembly

Iran’s president arrives in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, where, he says, the Islamic Republic intends to make a point of adverting to the US’s violations and defining Tehran’s regional and international policies.

Hassan Rouhani’s plane touched down at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York, the seat of the Assembly, on Sunday.

Surrounded by reporters upon deplaning, the Iranian chief executive said this year’s trip for the 73rd session of the Assembly was slightly different from the ones that took place in previous years.

“The climate is a little different from [those of] the previous years. The Americans have gone back on many of their agreements all across the world, including the agreement and pledge they had in the JCPOA,” he said.

Rouhani was referring by abbreviation to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the landmark nuclear deal that Iran signed with world countries, including the US, back in 2015. Washington left the accord in May, and started reintroducing the sanctions that had been lifted as its result.

The withdrawal was both preceded and followed by serious intensification in Washington’s adversarial measures targeting Tehran under President Donald Trump, who has made no bones about his strong intention to try to isolate the Islamic Republic in the international community.

“This year, there is an opportunity for some of the contraventions and instances of going back on international agreements to be defined better,” Rouhani said.

“In fact, our goal is to define the policies of the Islamic Republic concerning the world and the region at the meetings that we are going to have here God willing,” the president concluded.

Just before boarding the plane for the trip, Rouhani had said that the US wanted to cause insecurity in Iran with the help of “small mercenary states” in the region, but that the Islamic Republic is ready to confront them all.

The trip came a day after terrorists attacked a military parade in the southern Iranian city of Ahvaz, killing 25 people. Tehran has blamed Washington and some of its European and regional allies for the bloodbath.

“Americans want Iran to have no security. They want to create chaos and turmoil and set the conditions so that they can return to the country one day and take charge as they did in the old days, but none of these is possible,” the president had said. “These are unattainable dreams and America will never achieve any of these goals,” Rouhani had added.