Iran President: No Military Solution for Syria Crisis

Local Editor

In an exclusive interview with the US NBC news channel on Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani urged the ongoing crisis in Syria should only be settled through political solution.

"What is of utmost importance is to understand that Syria doesn't have a military solution, and the Syrians' problems must certainly be resolved politically. Only politically," Rouhani told NBC News on the sidelines of the 71st Session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

He noted that Syria's territorial integrity must be preserved, and that Syrian people themselves must decide the political future of President Bashar al-Assad.

"The rule of the ballot box and the rule of the Syrian people and the will of the Syrian people should be the sole determinant of the future of the country," the Iranian president pointed out.

President Rouhani also dismissed US Secretary of State John Kerry's demand Wednesday that Syria and Russia ground all aircraft in the northern part of the country after the bombing of a humanitarian convoy threatened a precarious ceasefire. The Pentagon blamed Russia for the attack.

Doing so, President Rouhani said, would help Daesh [Arabic acronym for "ISIS" / "ISIL"] and the al-Nusra Front, two terror groups fighting the Syrian government.

"They must be kept under pressure," Rouhani said. "If we ground planes it would 100 percent benefit them," NBC quoted President Rouhani as saying.

President Rouhani commented about attack by the American military aircraft on Saturday against a Syrian government installation that was called by the US "a mistake" and said that mistake claimed dozens of lives of government forces.

As for the landmark nuclear agreement made between Iran and the world six major powers in 2015 known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA], the President said that the US Treasury Department has made it hard for banks and other financial institutions from doing business with Iran.

President Rouhani also stressed that US cannot change the nuclear deal.

No single country, or president, could unravel the agreement, which included seven countries and the United Nations and is policed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, stressed the President.

He added, "Candidates can bring up any topic that they see best suits their campaigns."

Donald Trump, the nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2016 election, has called the nuclear deal a horrible deal that he would renegotiate and has said it would lead to a "nuclear holocaust" Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton, the Democrat nominee of the election, has said she would 'distrust and verify' Iran's commitment to the agreement.

"No one can say here or there that I don't accept this agreement, I want to renegotiate," President Rouhani told NBC News.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team