Rowhani demands slogan-free diplomacy

TEHRAN: Iran’s new President Hassan Rowhani called Saturday for a foreign policy free of damaging sloganeering as Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took office.
Rowhani said the clear message from voters, who gave him a surprise election victory over five conservatives on June 14, was that they wanted a new, more rational foreign policy.
“Foreign policy is not carried out by repeating slogans,” Rowhani said, in a clear allusion to the fiery rhetoric of his hard-line predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which brought international isolation.
“We have no right to use foreign policy to win plaudits — it’s a very sensitive field and it’s the key to solving our current problems,” the ISNA quoted him as saying at a Foreign Ministry handover ceremony.
“One of the messages of the voters in the presidential election was that they wanted a change in foreign policy,” he said. “That doesn’t mean abandoning our principles but it does mean a change of method. We are going to strongly defend our interests but that has to be done appropriately, precisely and rationally.”