Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani pledges ‘constructive engagement’

Iranian president Hassan Rouhani took centre stage at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum today, USA Today reports.

The Iranian leader sought to attract investments in his address, adding that  he was announcing a fresh programme of "constructive engagement with the world" that hinged on boosting economic development with foreign partners, the report said.

He added, the key to achieving peace in the Middle East was linked to economic growth in a region he described as being, "engulfed in flames."

In a cautionary note he said, the "US must accept Iran's historical realities," which, according to commentators could refer to the country's determination to pursue a nuclear programme on its own terms.

"I strongly declare that nuclear weapons have no place in our security strategy," he said. "We have no plans in that direction," he said.

According to Rouhani, who was on his first trip to Europe after his election this past summer, the dialogue at the Swiss mountain resort would help "to improve the world's management."

He said no one (country) could live alone promoting tourism to solve the worlds' problems or "consider its dominance as permanent."

Meanwhile, Iran is trying to attract US tourists, pitching the country as a location with culture, history and beaches, Fox News reported. However, at least two Americans languish in Iranian prison on dubious charges and the authoritarian regime routinely issues threats to the West and pursues a rogue nuclear weapons programme, according to the report.

Rouhani's administration claims tourism was up 30 per cent over a year ago, and the administration was pushing to double its annual number of visitors to 10 million.

Although direct flights between the US and Iran remain suspended after Iranian students took over the US Embassy and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days in 1979, travelers can connect flights in Istanbul.

A special visa is needed though and interested travellers would have to ignore a warning from the state department that ''elements in Iran remain hostile to the United States,'' and ''US citizens may be subject to harassment or arrest while travelling or residing in Iran.''

Two US citizens remain detained in Iranian prisons, former US Marine Amir Hekmati, who was charged with spying after visiting his grandfather, and Saeed Abedini, a Christian pastor from Idaho who was arrested for proselytising when he went to his homeland to help build a secular orphanage.