US defeat at UNSC showed Iran’s diplomatic power: Rouhani

President Hassan Rouhani says America’s failure in its attempts to make the UN Security Council (UNSC) extend the arms embargo against Tehran was a political success that displayed the power of Iran’s diplomacy.

“We are capable of standing up to the US at the United Nations, confront it, and achieve success,” Rouhani said at a meeting with Iranian media managers on Tuesday.

He said the US failed to get the UNSC to approve its anti-Iran resolution despite all the propaganda it has been spreading against the Islamic Republic’s defense program over the past decades.

The US, he said, has been claiming over the past 42 years that Iran’s weapons do not serve the interests of regional countries and thus proposed the resolution in the hope of extending the UN arms embargo against Tehran.

“The fact that they got only one vote except that of their own means Iran’s success and is [a sign of] its power of diplomacy,” the Iranian president said.  

Rouhani said the US has imposed crippling sanctions on Iran over the past two years with the aim of creating chaos and toppling the Islamic establishment, but to no avail.

He highlighted his administration’s efforts towards bolstering the country's might and capabilities in various fields, including economic, political and defense sectors.

The United Nations Security Council on August 14 unanimously rejected a US resolution to extend an arms embargo on Iran that is due to expire in October in line with a landmark nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), that Iran clinched with six world powers in 2015.

The resolution needed support from nine of 15 votes to pass. Eleven members abstained, including France, Germany and Britain, while the US and the Dominican Republic were the only “yes” votes.

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US maximum pressure policy failed 100%

The Iranian president also said that Washington’s so-called maximum pressure policy has completely failed, adding, “The [US] pressure aimed to force Iran to the negotiating table from a position of weakness.”

“The Americans suffered a definitive defeat in their [policy] of maximum sanctions,” he said. “The US sought to act against the JCPOA and imagined that Europe and others would follow its lead, but no one accepted.”

“Today, whenever there is talk of the JCPOA at the United Nations or other international circles, others, with the exception of only one or two countries which are among the US stooges, do not support America,” the Iranian president said.

He emphasized that if the US wants an agreement with Iran, it must first come back to the JCPOA that Washington abandoned two years ago.

“If an agreement means returning to the JCPOA, this agreement can be reached even today,” Rouhani said.

US President Donald Trump, a stern critic of the historic deal, unilaterally pulled Washington out of the JCPOA in May 2018, and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against the Islamic Republic in defiance of global criticism.

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