President Rouhani arrives in New York for 71st UN General Assembly session

President Hassan Rouhani has arrived in New York to participate in the 71st annual session of the United Nations General Assembly.

According to Press TV, heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, President Rouhani arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Tuesday and was welcomed by Gholam-Ali Khoshrou, Iran’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

The President is scheduled to deliver a speech at the General Assembly session and hold talks with senior officials of some other countries attending the meeting. He will also meet with world’s religious leaders as well as political and economic elites.

The 71st session of the General Assembly is facing one of the toughest to-do lists as the world is currently grappling with serious issues, including violence, terrorism, refugee crisis, climate change and nuclear proliferation.

Ahead of New York trip, President Rouhani traveled to Havana and held talks with his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro, and revolutionary leader, Fidel Castro, on Monday.

At a meeting between the two countries’ high-ranking delegations, chaired by the Iranian and Cuban presidents, the two sides discussed ways to improve relations.

Iranian and Cuban officials signed agreements for cooperation in the health, education and science sectors as well as a memorandum of understanding on banking cooperation.

President Rouhani arrived in Cuba from Venezuela, where he addressed the 17th summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on the island of Margarita on Saturday, during which he handed over the movement’s rotating presidency to his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolas Maduro.