Hassan Rouhani has used his speech at the United Nations General Assembly to slam the United States and present Iran as a moderate and measured international player.

Speaking on Wednesday morning in New York, the Iranian President said his regime strives "to build peace and promote the human rights of people and nations".

He responded to Donald Trump's Tuesday address, which fiercely criticised Iran, calling it "ignorant, absurd and hateful rhetoric" that was "unfit to be heard at the United Nations".

Mr Rouhani also defended the 2015 nuclear deal made between Western states and his country, warning that if the United States abandoned the agreement they would lose the international community's trust.

Rouhani slams Trump's remarks at the UN

Trump had implied time was running out for the deal between Iran and Western powers, describing it as among the "worst and most one-sided transactions the United States has ever entered into".


The US President called the Iranian regime a "corrupt dictatorship" that had turned the country into an "economically depleted rogue state whose chief exports are violence, bloodshed, and chaos".

Slamming its support of Bashar al Assad and record of political repression, President Trump called on Iran to "stop supporting terrorists, begin serving its own people, and respect the sovereign rights of its neighbours".

Trump has long criticised the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which lifted billions of dollars' worth of sanctions on the condition that the state destroyed 98% of its stockpile of weapons grade uranium.

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While clearly criticising Mr Trump and the United States, Mr Rouhani often declined to mention the President by name, telling the audience it would be a "great pity" if the nuclear agreement were "destroyed by rogue newcomers to the world of politics".

He also slammed what he suggested were double standards in US foreign policy, telling the audience Iran did not "promote freedom in one place while supporting dictators elsewhere". US politicians are frequently criticised for supporting Saudi Arabia while heavily criticising other nations, including Iran.

Response to Rouhani's speech was mixed. Many praised his measured tone:

Yesterday: Donald Trump sounded like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.



Today: Hassan Rouhani sounded like Barack Obama. #UNGA — Holly Dagres (@hdagres) 20 September 2017

But others criticised the hypocrisies of his speech, arguing that Iran's influence in the Syrian civil war and poor human rights record made it an uneasy critic of the USA:

Hassan Rowhani invokes the suffering of Muslims in #Syria and #Yemen as if #Iran was not the lead author of their misery. #UNGA pic.twitter.com/mvvfH6wRRl — Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) 20 September 2017

Donald Trump is yet to respond to Mr Rouhani's speech.