美国国家公共电台 NPR A Year After 'Rocket Man' Speech, Trump Returns To U.N. With Eyes On Iran

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

President Trump 1 today addressed a gathering 2 of world leaders in New York at the United Nations General Assembly.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: I honor the right of every nation in this room to pursue its own customs, beliefs and traditions. The United States will not tell you how to live or work or worship. We only ask that you honor our sovereignty in return.

INSKEEP: The presidential talk on sovereignty also touched on foreign aid. He complained that the United States gives aid to other nations but does not receive it. The president also said his administration had accomplished 3, quote, "almost more than any other administration in the history of our country," a line that caused the assembled diplomats 4 to laugh at him. NPR's Ayesha Rascoe has been covering the story. She's in New York. Hi there, Ayesha.

AYESHA RASCOE, BYLINE 5: Hello.

INSKEEP: What was it like to watch that moment, everyone laughing at the president of the United States?

RASCOE: It was a very striking moment because, as you know, President Trump has over and over again said that before he was president, the world was laughing at us, but no more. And so this was a moment on the international stage where you had other countries laughing at the president of the United States, laughing at Trump. But he took it in stride. He said he didn't expect that reaction, and he kind of went on. I don't know, though, that he will be happy if this - which it likely will be played over and over on the cable news shows. I don't know if he'll like that moment being highlighted.

INSKEEP: And there was also some substance discussed here, or some substantive 6 issues addressed, one of them being Iran. The president went to New York with the intent, it was said, of delivering a strong message to Iran after the cancellation 7 of a nuclear deal some months ago. Here's part of the president's remarks.

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TRUMP: We cannot allow a regime that chants, death to America and that threatens Israel with annihilation to possess the means to deliver a nuclear warhead to any city on earth. Just can't do it.

INSKEEP: But he canceled a deal that proposed, at least, that promised, at least, to keep a nuclear weapon out of Iran's hands for a good number of years. Is there any clearer sense of what he wants to replace that with?

RASCOE: No. There's no broad plan. He's said that sanctions are being put back into place and that there will be more sanctions. And so essentially 8 he called on the rest of the nations to isolate 9 Iran. And so right now that is the plan. There doesn't seem to be a larger framework for what happens next, other than just putting pressure on Iran and hoping that they'll come back to a negotiating table with the U.S. under President Trump.

INSKEEP: Haven't Europeans, Russia and China - so these would be the other nations that were involved in that nuclear deal - haven't they taken steps to strengthen it even as the president has been trying to pull them away from it?

RASCOE: They have tried to. Now, it is difficult because you have had some companies, European companies, who were dealing 10 with Iran who have pulled out because of the fear of sanctions. And so but they are trying to do things to kind of override 11 the U.S. sentiment on the deal and to keep it in place. But it's difficult.

INSKEEP: Very briefly 12, does the president indicate more progress could be coming, or some progress could be coming on North Korea and its nuclear program?

RASCOE: He had very positive words for them, but he said that they're going to have to keep the pressure on with sanctions until there's progress on dismantling 13 the nuclear program.

INSKEEP: That's NPR's Ayesha Rascoe in New York. Thanks very much.

RASCOE: Thank you.