Iranian President Seyed Ebrahim Rayeesi landed in Nicaragua on the second leg of his trination tour of Latin America, and urged Washington to show respect in dealing with rulers who ascend to power through public vote.
Heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, Rayeesi arrived in Nicaragua on Tuesday, marking his second stop on a three-nation Latin American tour. He earlier visited Venezuela and will set off for Cuba later.
“The US sought to stop our nation through sanctions and threats, but not only our nation has not been stopped, it has created an opportunity out of threats and sanctions and made progress,” Rayeesi said after he was officially welcomed by his Nicaraguan counterpart, Daniel Ortega, upon arrival in Managua.
The Iranian president rejected “false” claims by Western powers about their advocacy for democracy and human rights and urged the West, especially the United States, to respect the systems that are established on the basis of people’s votes, “but they do the opposite.”
He pointed to the US role in creating Daesh (also known as ISIS or ISIS) terror group and Tehran’s support for the battle against terrorism and stressed, “They claim to fight terrorism but they martyred [Iran’s] anti-terror hero Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani.”
He added that the Nicaraguan people’s resistance against excessive demands and arrogance led to their victory and emphasized that the two countries’ nations have the common desire for independence, freedom and justice.
The Iranian president noted that Tehran and Managua enjoy “strategic” relations and expressed the Islamic Republic’s readiness to improve mutual ties in various sectors, particularly in science and technology.
Ortega, for his part, said the Iranian and Nicaraguan revolutions have deep roots in the fight against dominance of arrogant powers, particularly the United States.
He added that “dominance-seeking” policy as an intrinsic component of the nature of imperialism and emphasized that the arrogant powers have exerted pressure on independent countries under the pretext of human rights and democracy, however, these states continue to strongly stand up to them.
Tehran has close ties with many Latin American countries in different domains and seeks to further deepen its relations with those states. The administration of President Rayeesi has described plans to enhance ties with Latin American countries as a main pillar of Iran’s foreign policy.
Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba have repeatedly denounced sanctions and unlawful measures imposed on them by the United States.
Iranian officials say the future of the world will not witness unilateralism, and multilateralism will spread across the globe.
They stress that the future of the world and region will be shaped by regional countries and organizations, as a growing number of states across the globe have rejected unilateralism and coercion. They asked independent states to challenge the US hegemony in the region and around the world, and stressed that domineering behavior is not just special to Democrats or Republicans but in the nature of American policies.
Officials in Iran have underlined that the US has been defeated in the maximum pressure policy against Tehran, underscoring that the policy of isolating Iran has ended up in failure. They say Washington’s sanctions and threats have all failed to cease Tehran’s progress.