Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said US and Arab airstrikes against the group calling itself the Islamic State (IS) in Syria “do not have any legal standing,” but refrained from endorsing Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad by name, referring instead to the need to work with Syria’s “central government” against terrorism.

Speaking to a group of senior news executives and correspondents Sept. 23 in his first major appearance at the United Nations this year, Rouhani also expressed optimism about the chances for a long-term nuclear agreement and said that relations between the United States and Iran “will be completely different” if such an agreement can be reached.

However, contrary to some press reports that Iran is tying US concessions on the size of its uranium enrichment capacity to cooperation against IS, Rouhani made no such explicit link. If no deal is achieved by the current Nov. 24 deadline, Rouhani suggested that Iran and the United States would not revert to the hostility that preceded his inauguration as president. “Everything is based on the expectation — God willing — that we will reach success,” he said, but added that it “doesn’t mean if we fail to reach agreement, we will go back to the past.”

Rouhani was repeatedly queried about the Syria strikes that took place just a few hours after his arrival in New York. While he noted that such attacks should either be endorsed by the UN Security Council or come at the request of a government — as occurred in Iraq — his condemnation appeared to be pro forma.