People of America would not trade blood they gave in 9/11 in exchange for money raised in arms sales

Appreciating people's historic turnout in the election, the President said: "With their 42 million turnout, our people demonstrated an incomparable presence in Iran's history".

He added: "With this election, people wanted to say that no faction, group, idea and school of thought cannot be eliminated and everybody is present and we must make use of everyone to build Iran".
In the election, people said they were a united nation and their voices must be heard, said the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

President Rouhani went on to say: "No one has the right to drag Revolution in its own tent", adding: "The Supreme Leader belongs to the entire Iranian nation".

Answering a question about defending people's rights, especially in the field of nuclear negotiations, the President said: "If we succeeded in the field of nuclear negotiations, it was because the whole Iranian nation were behind the Supreme Leader, building up a national integrity and unity, helping the administration to use people's power in international stages".

Dr Rouhani also answered a question about his evaluation of the latest meeting between heads of some Arab countries and the US President, in which Iran was accused of supporting terrorism, saying: "The assembly in Saudi Arabia, I believe, was a sham assembly without any political and practical vision. We have seen such shows from Saudi Arabia before".

Stressing that the scourge of terrorism cannot be resolved by meeting and giving a nation's money to a superpower, the president said: "It is the people of Syria, Iraq and Lebanon who have been able to stand against terrorism and the Iranian nation will help the two great nations of Syria and Iraq through its diplomats and military advisors, and will continue to do so".

"Who in the region can claim that without Iran, stability will be maintained in the region? Who can claim that without Iran, full security will be established? It was the Syrians and Iraqis who fought the terrorists and Iran, Hezbollah and Russia were by them. Those who are supporting terrorism cannot claim to be fighting terrorism," the President added.

He continued: "I don't think the people of the United States would be willing to trade the blood they gave in 9/11 with billions of dollars of arms sale, surrendering to terrorist in the region. The US administration has never combatted terrorism but the people of that country are against terrorists and want it eliminated".

On the administration's plans to fulfil its presidential promises, he said: "Our aim is to eliminate absolute poverty by the end of the 12th administration. What we said was based on expert opinion and what we presented to the Majlis, and we will attempt in this regard".

On the possibility of direct talks between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the United States of America, President Rouhani said: "Within the past 39 years, Iran and the US have travelled a twisty road with each other. Americans have used myriad of ways against Iran and have always failed. But maybe in one situation they achieved a partial success and that was the nuclear negotiations, where we achieved a win-win result, and that was to the benefit of Iran, the US, P5+1 and the whole world and if the US chooses another way, it will undoubtedly fail again".

"There are two things about the new US administration: one of them is that we are waiting for the new US administration to reach an established position with regard to its way of thinking and stances, as well as future plans and we hope that it can reach an established position to let us have a more precise judgement about the group at work in Washington," Rouhani added.

He continued: "The other point is that unfortunately, Americans have always made mistakes with regard to our region, when they attached Afghanistan and Iraq, when they imposed sanctions on us, and in Syria and Yemen. Americans do not know our region and the problem is that those who are advising the Americans are unfortunately either rulers who are misguiding the US, or buying people in the US. I hope that the US administration think about the interests of the American people, regardless of the fact that they are not thinking about the interests of other nations".

Answering a question about his plans to have good relations with Islamic countries and countries of the region and the world, the President said: "From the beginning of the 11th administration, we announced to the world that violence and extremism are great dangers for our region and the world and we want a world against terrorism and extremism, and it was accepted by the whole world".

"Those who congregated in Saudi Arabia have reached the conclusion that they must create a centre for moderation and they chanted the same motto that Iran used in 2013. They have come to the conclusion that there is no way other than moderation," he continued.

On terrorism he said: "Of course, to eliminate the scourge of terrorism in the world, there is a need to day for the whole world to understand that the way of combatting terrorists is unity and solidarity. Iran has been, and is, the pioneer of combatting terrorism".

He continued: "We said that we would stand against and fight terrorism and everybody saw that we helped all nations in fighting terrorism. Therefore, Iran's face is the face of fighting terrorism and establishing peace and security in the region and we will continued this path with more power in the 12th administration".

In answer to a question about the latest arms deal between the US and Saudi Arabia, he said: "Saudi Arabia has spent several 100-million-dollar deals before. Maybe they think they need to buy arms but we do not need to buy arms, we make them. I believe that Saudi Arabia cannot use these weapons and they will eventually be forced to take US military advisors to its region".

Stressing that the people of Saudi Arabia are Iran's friends and neighbours and we have always loved them and continue to do so, and we hope that the Saudi government chooses the right path, he said: "I want to tell the important government of the region and also the Saudi government that buying arms from others is not the way of gaining power, but rather the base of power is national power and this power comes from people's turnout at the ballot boxes".



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