Rouhani: US attempts to isolate Iran at UN only backfired

Back home from New York, President Hassan Rouhani says Washington’s attempts to advance an anti-Iran agenda at the UN only backfired, stressing that this year’s General Assembly session and related events further exposed the US’s isolation on the world stage.

Speaking at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on Thursday, President Rouhani briefed the reporters on the outcome of his trip to New York, where he attended the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly, met with world leaders on the sidelines, and gave several interviews to American media outlets.

The Iranian president touched on the administration of US President Donald Trump’s abortive attempts to put pressure on Iran and show it as an isolated country at the world body.

Trump had “no achievement,” neither in his speech to the General Assembly, nor at the Iran-centered UN Security Council meeting he chaired a day later, Rouhani added.

At the General Assembly, Rouhani said, Trump was laughed at when he began to speak in praise of his administration’s performance, adding that global media took that laughter as “humiliating for the American government and nation.”

Rouhani said the US sought to use its capacity as chair of the UN Security Council to single out Iran at the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the General Assembly’s session, only to face the “reverse effect.”

That meeting turned, instead, into a strong show of support for the 2015 multilateral nuclear deal with Iran , which the Trump administration scrapped in May in defiance of the very same council’s Resolution 2231, said Rouhani.

US chairs UN Security Council meeting, Iran on agenda

US President Donald Trump chairs the United Nations Security Council, one day after he urged the world to isolate Tehran.

“Trump was left alone at the session, and this was yet another instance of US isolation,” the Iranian president said.

He added that Iran, unlike the US, used this year’s General Assembly session to transparently present its positions to the world community.

Noting that the US “has chosen the path of unilateralism and turns a cold shoulder to international institutions and regulations,” the Iranian president emphasized, “The important thing is that no one — except for one or two countries — has America’s back today.”

Rouhani brings home ancient bas-relief

From New York, Rouhani also brought home an ancient Persian bas-relief, which had been smuggled out of the country more than 80 years ago.

US hands ancient Persian bas-relief back to Iran

On the orders of a New York Supreme Court judge, the $1.2-million limestone sculpture has been handed back to Iran after more than 80 years of changing hands among smugglers.

The $1.2 million limestone sculpture, which dates back to around 500 B.C., was handed back to Iran on the orders of a New York Supreme Court judge.

The relief was initially stolen in 1936 from the ruins of Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, situated 60 kilometers northeast of the city of Shiraz in Iran’s Fars Province. The ruins were declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site in 1979.