In an annual address to Iranian ambassadors, President Hassan Rouhani called critics of his approach to nuclear talks cowards. “As soon as there is talk of negotiations they say 'we are trembling,'” said Rouhani in comments broadcast live on state television. “Well, to hell! Go and find a warm place for yourselves,” he added.
Rouhani has faced resistance from hardliners on the nuclear issue, even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has repeatedly expressed confidence in his administration and negotiating team. In May, more than 100 lawmakers, students, academics held a conference entitled “We’re Worried” – advertised as “the great gathering of critics of a weak [interim nuclear] deal.” Iran and the world’s six major powers failed to meet the July 20 deadline for a comprehensive agreement. But they have extended talks until November 24. The following are excerpted remarks from Rouhani’s address to Iranian diplomats translated by various news agencies.
“The Iranian administration is resolved to have constructive interaction with the world.
“Some people deliver slogans but they are political cowards and as soon as there is talk of negotiations they say 'we are trembling.’ Well, to hell! Go and find a warm place for yourselves. What should we do? God has made you fearful and trembling.
“It is wrong to fear from interaction, negotiation and mutual understanding. Even it is wrong to fear from the heroic flexibility initiated by the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“The administration has done something big. One of these examples is the Geneva [interim nuclear] agreement and if some are not thankful for these efforts, sooner or later they will be and history will have its own judgment.
The nuclear dispute is an “artificial crisis,” and Iran is “not in a hurry in the nuclear discussions, but we do not see a delay as advisable.”
“The foundations of sanctions have broken and I have no doubt in this and we should know that the previous situation will not return. In the negotiations with the P5+1, we are in the process of breaking the sanctions, and they know how we break the sanctions.
“We know the sanctions to be oppressive and inhumane and we told them that your sanctions were wrong and inhumane. You sanctioned our medicine, and this will remain in history.
“Whether the [U.N. atomic energy] agency is there or not, the Islamic Republic has not, is not and will not be after weapons of mass [destruction].
“Ententephobia is a mistake. We want closer relations with the world but we will defend our rights and our national interests.
“The world has to accept the present reality and know that we have a serious intention to resolve this issue and we will not retreat from our rights.
“This administration is not an administration that will retreat from the rights of the people. It is an administration that has the highest and best support of the people and in the best situation, in unity with the leaders of other branches.
“The other branches of government are also with us and all of us are next to the guidance of the supreme leader and we are a single unit in the country and we will not give permission for anyone to create differences between the branches of the government and, God forbid — God be praised this doesn’t exist — that there would be an insult to the supreme leader.”