Iran's hard-line president struck a defiant tone on Wednesday by demanding guarantees the United States not abandon any revived nuclear deal and by decrying "double standards" on human rights after the death of an Iranian woman in police custody.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also said Tehran wanted former U.S. President Donald Trump to face trial for the 2020 killing of Iran's top Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani in an American drone attack in Iraq, holding up a picture of the general.
Trump in 2018 abandoned the 2015 nuclear deal under which Iran had agreed to restrain its atomic program in return for relief from economic sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin violating the nuclear limits about a year later.
"We have before us the experience of America's withdrawal from the (deal)," Raisi said at the UN General Assembly. "With that experience and this perspective, can we ignore the important issue of guarantees for a durable agreement?"
Raisi also sought to deflect criticism of last week's death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested by morality police in Tehran for "unsuitable attire," which has unleashed protests that reflect simmering anger over personal freedoms in the Islamic Republic and an economy reeling from sanctions.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran rejects some of the double standards of some governments vis-a-vis human rights," Raisi said. "(So long as) we have this double standard where attention is solely focused on one side and not all equally, we will not have true justice and fairness.
"Human rights belong to all, but unfortunately it is trampled upon by many governments," he added, referring to the discovery of unmarked graves of indigenous people in Canada, the suffering of the Palestinians and images of migrant children held in cages in the United States.
Addressing the UN General Assembly shortly after Raisi, US President Joe Biden was robust on both fronts. Biden said the UN will “not allow” Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon and that Americans “stand with the brave citizens and the brave women of Iran who right now are demonstrating to secure their basic rights”.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
