Sep 12, 2018

Whether Iran's President Hassan Rouhani should travel to New York for this year's UN General Assembly is fueling a war of words between his critics and supporters.

Hard-line daily Kayhan initially sparked the debate. In a Sept. 10 editorial, the paper advised Rouhani to cancel his trip to New York in order to use it as a chance to humiliate his US counterpart, Donald Trump. "Since the United States has spared no opportunity for hostility against Iran, President Rouhani needs to refrain from attending the General Assembly as an official protest over Trump's chairmanship [of an agenda item] at the Security Council," said the editorial.

According to Kayhan, such a decision could be a "tooth-breaking response to Trump's incessant insults against the Islamic Republic and the Iranian nation." Kayhan further downplayed Rouhani's previous trips to New York as bearing no fruit, implying that Iran will lose nothing by refusing to participate.

The paper's argument drew its first reaction from a top Rouhani adviser. In a chain of tweets, Hesamoddin Ashna fired back by describing Kayhan as a representative of a small but powerful camp that keeps saying "no to diplomacy." Ashna insisted that Rouhani’s trip to New York could be productive if he pursues a useful diplomatic approach. "He [Rouhani] is not a person who would make trips for the sake of traveling," Ashna said.

In another reaction, Behrouz Nemati, spokesman for the Iranian parliament's presiding board, reminded Rouhani "to act with rationality and disregard baseless and emotional remarks … and attend the UN General Assembly to send the Iranian people's message of peace and friendship to the entire world."