{"id":58789,"date":"2020-01-17T12:10:40","date_gmt":"2020-01-17T04:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58789"},"modified":"2020-01-17T13:53:30","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T05:53:30","slug":"iran-us-tension-pres-rouhani-says-wants-dialogue-working-to-prevent-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58789","title":{"rendered":"Iran-US tension: Pres Rouhani says wants dialogue, working to \u2018prevent war\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

TEHRAN, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he wants to avoid war after Tehran and Washington appeared on the brink of direct military confrontation in early January for the second time in less
than a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ahead of parliamentary elections on Feb 21 \u2014 predicted to be a
challenge for Rouhani\u2019s camp \u2014 and amid high tensions between Tehran and the West over Iran\u2019s nuclear programme, the president said on Thursday dialogue with the world was still \u201cpossible\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government is working daily to prevent military confrontation or war,\u201d Rouhani said in a televised speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The region seemed on the brink of new conflict earlier in January after the
US killed top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in a drone strike in Baghdad,
prompting Iran to retaliate against US military targets in Iraq with a volley
of missiles days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strike caused significant material damage but no casualties, according
to the US military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani said the strike amounted to \u201ccompensation\u201d for the death of
Soleimani, the architect of Iran\u2019s Middle East military strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tensions between the two enemies seemed to subside in the wake of the
accidental downing of a Ukrainian passenger airliner hours after the
retaliatory strikes, as Iran was on high alert for US reprisals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tragedy killed 176 people, mostly Iranians and Canadians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Canada\u2019s foreign minister on Thursday vowed to push Iran for answers about the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFamilies want answers, the international community wants answers, the
world is waiting for answers and we will not rest until we get them,\u201d
Francois-Philippe Champagne said in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ottawa said earlier that US President Donald Trump\u2019s policies had
contributed to the heightened tensions that led to the catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In June 2019, Iran and the US had also appeared to be on the brink of
direct military confrontation after Tehran shot down a US drone it said had
violated its airspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump said he called off retaliatory strikes at the last minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The animosity between Washington and Tehran has increased since Trump
withdrew the US from the landmark 2015 nuclear deal in 2018 and reimposed biting sanctions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Iran, the air disaster sparked public outrage and anti-government
demonstration took place every day from Saturday to Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security forces were deployed across the capital in response to the
protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani implicitly acknowledged a crisis of confidence in authorities, but
called Wednesday for \u201cnational unity\u201d, better governance and greater
pluralism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Rouhani also defended the policy of openness to the world that he has pursued since his first election in 2013, and which Iran\u2019s ultra-
conservatives criticise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s difficult,\u201d he acknowledged, but added, \u201cthe people
elected us to lower tensions and animosity\u201d between the Islamic republic and the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani said that with the nuclear deal \u201cwe have proven in practice that it
is possible for us to interact with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani was speaking the day before supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is expected to lead the main weekly Muslim prayers in Tehran for the first time since 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Khamenei, who maintains that the West is not trustworthy, bans dialogue
with Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Thursday, Rouhani said Iran\u2019s \u201cdaily enrichment\u201d of uranium was
currently \u201chigher\u201d than before the conclusion of the 2015 nuclear deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rouhani, who instigated the negotiations, made the comments while
justifying his nuclear policy and Iran\u2019s progressive disengagement from the
accord. He also stated his willingness to continue dialogue on the agreement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response to the US withdrawal from the deal and sanctions, an
increasingly frustrated Iran has hit back with a step-by-step suspension of
its own commitments under the deal, which drastically limited its nuclear
activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Germany, the UK and France \u2014 the three European parties to the deal \u2014 announced they had triggered a dispute mechanism in response to the latest step back from the deal by Tehran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany on Thursday confirmed a Washington Post report that the US had
threatened to impose a 25 percent tariff on imports of European cars if EU
governments continued to back the nuclear deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the European parties of having \u201csold out\u201d the deal to avoid trade reprisals from the US, and said Trump was again behaving like a \u201chigh school bully\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a European Union Statement, foreign policy chief Josep Borrell
met Zarif in New Delhi on Thursday and urged Iran to \u201cpreserve\u201d the
increasingly fragile nuclear deal. — NNN-AGENCIES
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN, Jan 17 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he wants to avoid war after Tehran and Washington appeared on the brink of direct military confrontation in early January for the second time in lessthan a year. Ahead of parliamentary elections on Feb 21 \u2014 predicted to be achallenge for Rouhani\u2019s camp \u2014 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":31693,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[208,215,209,217,297],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58789"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58789\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/31693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58789"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58789"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58789"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}