Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says 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.
Ahead of parliamentary elections on February 21 — predicted to be a challenge for Rouhani’s camp — and amid high tensions between Tehran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program, the president says dialogue with the world is still “possible.”
“The government is working daily to prevent military confrontation or war,” Rouhani says in a televised speech.
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a public gathering at the city of Yazd, some 410 miles (680 kilometers) southeast of the capital Tehran, Iran, November 10, 2019. (Office of the Iranian Presidency via AP)
He also defends the policy of openness to the world that he has pursued since his first election in 2013, and which Iran’s ultra-conservatives criticize. “Of course, it’s difficult,” he acknowledges, but adds, “the people elected us to lower tensions and animosity” between the Islamic republic and the world.
— AFP
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