Ayatollah Dr Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi had a meeting with the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, on Wednesday afternoon local time, on the third day of his trip to New York, and described in a friendly and developing Tehran-Helsinki relations, and said, "Considering the various capacities available in Iran and Finland, the interactions between the two countries can be upgraded to a higher level".The President added, "The Islamic Republic is determined to develop cooperation and improve the level of relations with all friendly countries, including Finland".Explaining the logic of the Islamic Republic in the nuclear issue, Dr Raisi also said, "Considering the history of the violation of the agreement by the United States and the European countries that are parties to the nuclear agreement, today no one in the world can claim that Iran's position in obtaining reliable guarantees for not violating the agreement again by Western countries is irrational".Describing the US sanctions against Iran as cruel and illegal, Ayatollah Raisi noted, "The sanctions are the continuation of the same policy of military attack with the intention of imposing the wishes and opinions of hegemonic and tyrannical countries on independent countries, which is being followed in a new form, but sanctions have not been able to stop the Islamic Republic and I invite you to visit Iran to witness the continuation of our country's growth and progress in various scientific, technical, production and economic fields".The President also criticised the double standard of the West in dealing with human rights and said, "Double standards are the biggest and most serious example of human rights violations. According to the official statistics of Western countries and especially the United States, every year a large number of citizens of these countries are killed by unjustified use of force by the police, but this issue has not in any way caused the countries that claim to defend human rights to express concern".Stating that the defence of human rights is in the essence of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Raisi added, "Defending human rights and human kind has always been one of the serious priorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran".Dr Raisi also referred to the concern expressed by the President of Finland regarding the situation of the Afghan people and refugees and said, "Is it possible to solve a problem for them by simply expressing concern for the people of Afghanistan and not paying attention to why this situation has arisen?"The President stated that the current situation of the Afghan people is the result of the 20 years of US and NATO presence in this country, which has only resulted in destruction, killing and bloodshed, and that the disability of 35,000 Afghan children during this period was only one of the results of this presence, saying, "Violation of human rights cannot be cured by issuing resolutions and requires diligent follow-up and elimination of its roots and factors".In this meeting, the President of Finland Sauli Niinistö thanked for holding this meeting and said, "Finland and Iran have good relations with each other and their bilateral relations are friendly and developing".Thanking the Islamic Republic of Iran for hosting a huge population of Afghan refugees, he asked Ayatollah Raisi to mediate to end the conflicts in Ukraine.