President Rouhani: Iran not initiator of JCPOA violation

Tehran, Feb 6, IRNA – President Rouhani said in Tehran on Tuesday that Iran will not initiate violating the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) reached between Iran and G5+1 in Vienna in July 2015. 'Iran will not be the first to quit the JCPOA,' the President noted in a press conference. He rejected the calls for re-negotiating the nuclear deal, adding, 'Iran will not accept any change to the JCPOA text.' President Rouhani referred to the US President's efforts to decertify the JCPOA over past one year and described it as evidence that shows the nuclear deal is strong enough to stand against pressures. He described the nuclear deal as a multilateral agreement, noting that breaching the deal will discredit the US. Iran will stay in the nuclear deal until benefiting from it, the President said. President Rouhani said the Islamic Republic of Iran is determined to stand against US intervention and is quite confident that the US pressure leaves no impact on the country. He said there is no doubt that the US uses every chance to create problems for the Islamic Republic of Iran to pretend that the country is incapable of dealing with various issues. The US turned the recent protest to a political turmoil and took its dossier to the UNSC, but received a very humiliating defeat as everyone talked about the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) instead of listening to the US allegations, President Rouhani said. Much to our surprise, the US served launch banquet to win votes of the countries at the United Nations, he said. President Rouhani then said Iran is not pursuing access to Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs). 'Iran's missiles are for defense,' President Hassan Rouhani noted. He referred to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei's decree on prohibition of WMDs and said that 'we will not pursue access to such weapons'. Commenting on the US call for negotiating on Iran's missile capabilities, he urged Washington to give up pressures and sanctions. President Rouhani said there is good cooperation among Iran, Russia and Turkey on resolving the crisis in Syria. President Rouhani said he had held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin who said Summit of the heads of the three states should be held again. 'Our ties with Turkey and Russia is very good but our principled stance is based on that entry of army of a country to another country should be on consent of the people and government of the country otherwise it would not be right; we wish the operation will end sooner because both our Turk and Kurd brothers are killed and it will be in vain. We have the same opinion with regards to any country; we condemn Americans' presence in Syria; of course, they have wrong targets and think of Syria disintegration.' Touching on dialogue to resolve regional problems, President Rouhani called for resolution of regional problems through dialogue. 'We want dialogue among regional countries,' the President noted in a press conference. He underlined that political approach and dialogue is the basic solution for problems. 'We are talking to the regional countries and countries outside the region to resolve issues,' the official added. The President underlined that people of the region should themselves decide their future, noting that the foreign powers should not interfere in the internal affairs of the countries. Rouhani said the Islamic Republic of Iran is ready to help Afghan government in fight against terrorism. Afghanistan is Iran's eastern neighbor and the two countries have had a very good relation during centuries. A very significant agreement signed between Iran and Afghanistan during previous president which will be to the benefit of both nations and many parts of it has been finalized, he said. Afghan people are now struggling with terrorism and Iran is ready to render any help or even military advice if requested by Afghan government, he said. The US set up many military bases to restore security in Afghanistan, but we are witnessing that they backed fire and Afghan nation suffer insecurity, he said. Presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan gives enough justification to terrorists to recruit more Afghans, but the Islamic Republic of Iran will be ready to help Afghan government in case of any demand from them. The President said the Zionist regime is an enemy to all nations and all Islamic countries should maintain their unity in dealing with the regime. The US government has adopted a new approach in dealing with the Zionist regime which differs with its predecessors and under such circumstance the Zionists try to make advantage of the US and Saudi Arabia supports, he said. US President Trump has declared Beit-ol-Moqaddas as Zionists' capital, he said adding that all countries round the world except one or two countries opposed to such decision and even OIC adopted a very good stands in dealing with it. All should exercise vigilance and countries in the region should remain united, he said adding that in the course of time Riyadh rulers will understand that their decision was incorrect. Their calculations in Iraq, Syria and Yemen were wrong, underlined President Rouhani. Asked whether his government has heard the demands of the Iranian people over the recent protests across the country, President Rouhani said the demands of the Iranian people are not limited to the economic issues and they also have concerns about social and foreign policy issues. The President noted that since the beginning of his first tenure in 2013, Iran's inflation rate has been descending. Rouhani said that Iran's economic growth has turned two-digit now from -0.6% when he took office five years ago. 'We have allocated budget to eliminate absolute poverty in the budget bill,' the president said. The motto of the government is to fight absolute poverty and create generative employment, President Rouhani said, adding, 'This indicates that the government has heard the demands of the people and has accepted the right to protest.' The President said government spares no effort to lessen reliance on oil economy and try to promote tourism industry and believes that the country's budget should merely rely on taxation law. He said, 'We should keep away from reliance on oil revenues step by step and define a new system which merely relies on taxation.' To attain the goals, 'we should promote' cultural taxation, he said. Regarding the country's occupation, he said last year some 700,000 were employed, but 'we try to increase the figure this year'. Elsewhere in his remarks, President Rouhani said Iran's economic growth rate has become two digit from the below zero. The President said Iran has a positive foreign exchange balance as its forex income exceeds forex spending. Iran will have a bright future. 'Our future will be better than now.' He said Iran has not any deficit at all. 'Foreign exchange should reach the state of equilibrium. If foreign exchange today is higher than the previous weeks, it should not have any commercial or economic grounds. It cannot be on commercial grounds because our balance of foreign exchange is positive in terms of meeting foreign exchange and forex spending: our forex revenues go well above forex spending.' 'Economic justification may not be the cause because we do not have any budget deficit this year: The same budget we ratified in government in the beginning months will be met.' He added that Iran has 30 billion dollars foreign financing. He advised the businesspersons to avoid treading in the 'highly risky' path just because their own benefit. President Rouhani then underlined the need for fighting absolute poverty and unemployment. The President highlighted role of youth in the country's management and urged dialogue between the old and youth generations. The youth should be listened and paid attention to, he noted. The President is attending a press conference on Tuesday. The representatives of the most important domestic and foreign media are present at the press conference. The event is being broadcast live from IRIB1, IRNN, national radio, Iranian international television channels, and the social networks. 1378/IRNA