Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani went before the United Nations General Assembly to criticize econmic sanctions against his country as a form of “violence”.  As for the reasons for those sanctions, he said nuclear weapons had no place in Iran’s future.

Rouhani offered no specific proposals to reach a compromise on the nuclear dispute, but insisted that nuclear weapons would not be part of Iran’s uranium enrichment program, saying, “this will always be the position of Iran.”

The sanctions against Iran, he said, are “violent, pure and simple,” significantly hindering its oil, banking and manufacturing base.

US President Obama had earlier spoke before the general assembly, saying he was encouraged by Rouhani's “more moderate course.” 

Rouhani’s predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the past used his UN speech time to spin idiotic conspiracy theories about Israel, defend Holocaust revisionists, and deny that Iran had homosexuals.