Rouhani criticizes US unilateralism in his address to the SCO summit

Tabnak – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who is in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s annual summit, has grasped the opportunity to criticize the United States over its unilateral moves against the other nations. At the same time, he appreciated Russia and China over their support for the nuclear deal.

Addressing the 18th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in the Chinese port city of Qingdao on Sunday, Rouhani warned of threats posed by economic, political and legal unilateralism to regional convergence.

He also stressed that "unilateral sanctions are not only against international rules and regulations, but also damage legitimate international trade," adding, "the United States’ attempts to impose its own policies on others is a growing danger."

The Iranian president further described Washington's recent decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement as "a recent example of the United States’ unilateralism and indifference towards the opinions of the international community."

He emphasized that the Islamic Republic has so far lived up to all its obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has so far confirmed Iran’s commitment to the terms of the deal.

Rouhani appreciated efforts by China and Russia to preserve the nuclear accord, saying, "All signatories to the JCPOA have a responsibility regarding the commitments of removing sanctions under the JCPOA, and also based on Resolution 2231 of the UN Security Council and Article 25 of the Charter of the United Nations are responsible to help full implementation of the JCOPA and prevent any move that poses an obstacle on implementation of the JCPOA."

He also noted that the remaining parties to the deal have "a limited opportunity" to provide the "necessary guarantee in action to help implement all the agreed conditions in the JCPOA and continue being a party to this agreement."

"Definitely, the US has monitored the reactions to its withdrawal from the JCPOA and considers the lack of response to its unilateral withdrawal as not being costly, which will have very bad consequences for the international community," he pointed out.

Elsewhere in his address, the Iranian president warned of the threat posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism to the world, calling for an increase in intelligence exchange between regional countries in a bid to weaken terrorist groups.

The Islamic Republic, he said, "has invaluable experience in curtailing and weakening of extremist and terrorist currents, an example of which is cooperating with the government of Iraq and Syria in fighting ISIS (Daesh) terrorist."

Iran is currently an observer member of the SCO, though it has long sought full membership. The SCO was formed in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to curb extremism in the region and enhance border security.