President Rouhani: Iran, Turkey Should Cooperate in Fighting Violence, Extremism

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned of the spread of violence and extremism in the region, and said Iran and Turkey should cooperate in fighting these two ominous phenomena.
“International developments after the Cold War and specially after the September 11 event deeply affected this sensitive region and the regional states witnessed the growing spread of violence, extremism and killing of innocent people due to the consequences of these developments,” Rouhani said, addressing a dinner banquet thrown in his honor by Turkish President Abdullah Gul in Ankara on Monday night.

He expressed regret that violence and extremism have grown more complicated due to the interferences of the trans-regional powers, and said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Turkey should make efforts and cooperate within the framework of the UN ‘Global Fight against Violence and Extremism’ Resolution to attract the views of all the regional states to fight this ominous phenomenon which is aimed at destroying the present and future of all the regional countries.”

On December 18, the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly voted to approve President Rouhani’s World Against Violence and Extremism (WAVE) proposal, which calls on all nations across the globe to denounce violence and extremism. The Iranian president had made the proposal in his address to the UN Disarmament Conference in New York on September 25.

Under the UN resolution adopted in accordance with the WAVE proposal, the General Assembly would urge member states to take “appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace and to achieve international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character”.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in a meeting with Rouhani in Beijing in May voiced the world body’s preparedness to cooperate with Iran to help eradicate extremism in the world.

“The UN is ready to cooperate with Iran and other countries to eradicate violence and extremism in the world,” Ban said during the meeting on the sidelines of the Fourth Summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in the Chinese capital.

Ban hailed the Iranian president’s WAVE proposal, and lamented that the world is suffering from extremism and violence as acute problems.

“Today extremism and violence have resulted in global instability.”