Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday his country doesn't want a war with the United States and believes America will "sooner or later" support the Iran nuclear agreement again, following the Trump administration's withdrawal from the accord earlier this year.
Rouhani told reporters that the U.S. decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear deal in May was "a mistake," because the withdrawal provides no benefit for the people of the United States, Iran, Europe or any other country.
"The United States of America one day will come back [to the deal], sooner or later," he said.
He said the Trump administration made a "second mistake" by presiding over a U.N. Security Council session earlier Wednesday, in which 14 countries either directly or indirectly backed the nuclear agreement between Iran, the U.S. and five other major powers.
Only U.S. President Donald Trump, who chaired the session, spoke against the deal, and appeared isolated as a result, Rouhani asserted.
Addressing the council, Trump called the JCPOA, as the agreement is known in the U.S., a "horrible one-sided deal," declaring that Iran "must never be allowed to possess a nuclear weapon" and accusing its government of exporting "violence, terror and turmoil."
Rouhani said it was "quite strange, unprecedented and amazing" that while presiding over the Security Council as its president Trump also called on the 14 other council members to violate the legally binding resolution endorsing the JCPOA, which the council adopted unanimously in 2015 – including a "yes" vote from the United States.
He added that Trump not only disagreed with that resolution but threatens anyone who implements it with "punishment."
Asked whether he believed the Trump administration's harsh language against Iran might lead to war, Rouhani said that since the 1979 Islamic Revolution Iran "has been subjected to that type of language many times."
But he said Trump administration officials "speak with a different style, presumably because they're new to politics."
As for war, Rouhani said, "We do not wish to go to war with American forces anywhere in the region. We do not wish to attack them. We do not wish to increase tensions – none of the above. But we ask the United States of America to adhere to laws and respect national sovereignty of nations."
Rouhani also said that "America must think again about its presence in the region, in the Persian Gulf, in the Sea of Oman, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and other places."
Trump has vowed to continue to isolate Iran through U.S. sanctions that are being reinstated following the U.S. pullout from the nuclear agreement in May. The next round of sanctions will take effect in early November.
But Rouhani told reporters that sanctions which "were supposed to be proactive in November became proactive in September, so there are no other sanctions that will start in November."
He complained that the United States "has spared no effort" to exert pressure on Iran's oil sales and banking relationships, and there is not much left for the Trump administration to do.
Rouhani said Iran will continue working with countries that support the nuclear deal.
He called Monday's decision by the five other signatories to the agreement who still support it – Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany – to establish a financial system in the European Union to facilitate payments for Iranian imports and exports "a very good step forward."
"We have lived up to the JCPOA," Rouhani said. "Up until such time when we keep reaping the benefits promised within that agreement for our nation and our people, we will remain in the agreement."
"But should this situation change, we have other paths and other solutions which we will embark upon," he said without elaborating.
Also on Wednesday, Revolutionary Guards Commander Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said that the world leaders' laughter during Trump's speech to the U.N. General Assembly was a sign of the United States' isolation.
Some delegates at the General Assembly on Tuesday laughed and muttered when Trump, in his speech, praised the "extraordinary" achievements of his administration.
"You saw and heard their laughter," Jafari said. "The message of this ridicule was the crumbling of your facade and the increased isolation of America, and this was a big political disgrace.
"You can be sure that the people of Iran and the region are laughing at your completely false and ridiculous claims, but you can't hear their laughter from far away."
Separately, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in a Twitter post Wednesday that the United States had "abused" the U.N. Security Council and is "further isolated."
"Once again, the U.S. abused the UNSC only to find itself further isolated in its violation of #JCPOA and SC resolution 2231. When will it learn its lesson?" Zarif tweeted.
