Rouhani Slams 'Illegal' Sanctions, Assures Tehran Will 'Never Deviate' from Nuclear Pledges

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani vowed Friday his country would never deviate from its pledges at nuclear talks and said his country would propose a new plan at next month's Geneva meeting.

"At the next meeting in Geneva, Iran will propose its plan to the P5+1," the new Iranian leader told reporters, adding "we will never deviate from our commitments."

Earlier on Friday, Rouhani slammed "illegal" sanctions crippling his country's economy, saying they were just a means by some nations to pursue a "short-sighted" foreign policy.

Addressing a gathering of the Non-Aligned Movement of nations, the new Iranian leader said all countries should be "guided by the rule of law ... to establish a just and lasting peace all over the world."

The 193 members of the United Nations had agreed to stand by "the principle of refraining in our international relations from the threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations," he said.

Therefore, all states must avoid "applying any unilateral economic, financial or trade measures contrary to international law and the U.N. Charter that impede the full achievement of economic and social development, particularly in developing countries."

Iran's economy has been badly hurt by a series of U.N. and international sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic over the years for ignoring U.N. resolutions calling on it to halt its suspect uranium enrichment program.

While global leaders have been positively surprised by Rouhani's new overtures to give fresh impetus to the dragging nuclear talks with world powers, there have been warnings that Tehran's new leadership may only be seeking to ease the sanctions and has no real intention of dismantling its nuclear program.

Rouhani urged the Non-Aligned Movement to find "creative ways" to stop countries turning to what he called a "misuse of the mechanism of Security Council by some permanent members to impose illegal sanctions against a member state only to advance their short-sighted foreign policy agenda."

"Furthermore, we should devise a mechanism to withstand the pressure to enforce unilateral sanctions extra-territorially."

U.S. officials say that despite the change of tone, after a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Thursday with his American, European and Chinese counterparts leading the nuclear talks, nothing has yet been translated into concrete action.

"Look, if Iran did every single thing we wanted done, could sanctions be lifted? Of course. But that's getting everything done we want done," a senior State Department official told reporters.

"There is nothing that is yet agreed upon. He (Zarif) put out a set of ideas. That is a worthwhile thing. That has not happened in this way before ever.

"But it is a long way from an agreement. It is a long way from concrete progress. If there are folks out there that are skeptical, they have reason to be skeptical because we've got a long way to go here."