Rouhani Rules Out Trump Talks With Time Running Out in New York
Rouhani Rules Out Talks With Trump With Iran Under Sanctions
(Bloomberg) -- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed not to enter talks with President Donald Trump while under what he called America’s “merciless economic terrorism,” the latest sign that efforts to bring the two leaders together at the United Nations are foundering.
Speaking after an evening of shuttle diplomacy by French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, Rouhani said Iranians would rely on their “national dignity, pride and strength” rather than negotiate while enduring stringent economic sanctions.
“Our response to negotiations, while under sanctions, is no,” Rouhani said during his speech Wednesday to the General Assembly. “There is no way that we will negotiate with an enemy that wants to force Iran’s capitulation using the weapons of poverty, pressure and sanctions.”
Rouhani’s remarks signal Iran’s leadership hasn’t shifted its stance despite a rapid-fire effort on Tuesday by Macron, who met separately with Trump and Rouhani into the evening as he continued to press for negotiations between the antagonists on his final day at the UN. Rouhani’s speech also suggests that no significant offer to ease sanctions was put forth by Trump, who has repeatedly said he would like to have a meeting without any preconditions.
After a year of casting around for ways to save the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal after Trump withdrew from the accord and reapplied crippling economic sanctions, European leaders have come up short and are trying instead to get the two leaders in a room in a bid to defuse tensions. The effort to de-escalate took on a new sense of urgency after an attack this month on Saudi Arabian oil facilities, which the U.S. and Western allies have blamed on Iran.
“If he leaves the country without meeting with President Trump this is a lost opportunity,” Macron said of Rouhani on Tuesday. “Because he will not come back in a few months. And President Trump will not go to Tehran so they have to meet now.”
With Iran’s economy suffering from Trump’s “maximum pressure” campaign, the country’s leaders are looking for a way back to the negotiating table as well, but they can’t afford to look like they’re capitulating to American demands, especially after Trump unilaterally left the 2015 deal. For Rouhani, sitting down with Trump would be an immense political gamble, with no guarantee of an agreement that would allow Tehran to legally sell oil again.
‘Stop the Sanctions’
“The only way for talks to begin is to return to commitments and to compliance,” Rouhani said. “Stop the sanctions so as to open the way for negotiations.”
France, the U.K. and Germany have led efforts to keep alive the 2015 nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, after Trump quit the accord. But on Monday the three European nations issued a statement raising the pressure on Tehran by blaming it for the attack on Saudi oil facilities and saying Rouhani’s government should agree to talks that would go beyond the JCPOA by including Iran’s ballistic missile program.
Saudi officials, who say they are weighing how to respond to the attacks, praised the European statement. The announcement was “a very significant step forward in terms of the European position,” Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Tuesday. Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have long argued that any new agreement needs to address Iran’s ballistic missiles and its support for regional proxies in Yemen and Syria.
Yemen War
Addressing Saudi Arabia, Rouhani said the kingdom’s security can be achieved only “by ending the aggression in Yemen.” He said peace requires a solution from countries in the Middle East and Persian Gulf and “cannot be purchased or secured through foreign governments.”
Federica Mogherini, the European Union’s foreign affairs minister, signaled Europe is still trying to save the nuclear agreement, but added in comments on the sidelines of the UN gatheringthat anything that builds on it “is very much welcomed.”
Talks between the U.S. and Iran appeared more likely a few weeks ago before the attack on Saudi Arabia. That incident, which caused a surge in oil prices and renewed fears of military conflict, appear to have shifted the calculation in Europe, which has been squeezed between Washington’s pressure campaign against Iran and threats from Tehran that it will gradually unwind its commitments to the nuclear accord if Europe doesn’t deliver economic benefits.
Macron previously sought to broker a breakthrough between the U.S. and Iran when he hosted the Group of Seven summit in France last month, winning verbal support from Trump for a proposal extending a $15 billion credit line to Tehran. It wasn’t clear whether he is still pushing for that idea in meetings this week.
Macron said his goal is “to be a mediating power” and “to play a useful role.”
“France is neither Iran nor the U.S., we have done what we could to create the conditions, it is now up to the others,” he added.
--With assistance from Gregory Viscusi and Robert Hutton.
To contact the reporters on this story: David Wainer in New York at dwainer3@bloomberg.net;Golnar Motevalli in London at gmotevalli@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Bill Faries at wfaries@bloomberg.net, Larry Liebert
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