Democracy, only solution to regional woes: President

President Hassan Rouhani says the solution to regional problems does not lie in the use of force but rather in respecting democracy, adding that the era of military coups has come to a close.

President Rouhani made the remarks in an address to a huge crowd of people in Iran’s western city of Kermanshah on Sunday, a day after Turkey said it had largely crushed an attempted military coup against the government, Press TV reported.

“We live in a region, where some still think that they can transfer power through coups or overthrow a government elected by people’s votes with the use of military tanks, artillery, aircraft and helicopter,” he said.

They “have failed to realize that the era of coup is over, and that coups and tanks are not the solution. They must come to the understanding that the solution to problems is democracy and respecting the votes of the majority,” he added.

President Rouhani said, “Today is the day when issues can be settled at ballot boxes, and people can make their voice heard” through their votes.

In his remarks, President Rouhani also touched on last year’s nuclear agreement between the Islamic Republic and the P5+1 group of countries, saying the Iranian nation “cut off the hands of aggressors and the US as a result of the JCPOA.”

In the nuclear negotiations, Iran managed to consolidate its right to use peaceful nuclear energy, he added.

SS