Obama to pursue diplomacy with Iran
Opportunity to meet at UN assembly missed
UNITED NATIONS: US President Barack Obama on Tuesday cautiously embraced overtures from Iran’s new president as the basis for a possible nuclear deal, but a failed effort to arrange a simple handshake between the two leaders underscored entrenched distrust that will be hard to overcome.
In a speech to the United Nations, Mr Obama said he was determined to test President Hassan Rohani’s recent diplomatic gestures and challenged him to take concrete steps toward resolving Iran’s long-running nuclear dispute with the West.
Hours later, Mr Rohani used his debut at the world body to pledge Iran’s willingness to engage immediately in ‘‘timebound’’ talks on the nuclear issue but he offered no new concessions and repeated many of Iran’s grievances against the United States, and Washington’s key Middle East ally, Israel.
He steered clear, however, of the Holocaust-denial rhetoric that was characteristic of his hard-line predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and later told CNN that the Holocaust had been a ‘‘reprehensible crime’’ against Jews, although the scale of it was a matter for historians.
Mr Rohani told CNN he did not meet Mr Obama at the UN General Assembly because the two sides ‘‘didn’t have sufficient time to really coordinate the meeting’’.
But he said the environment was changing because Iranians wanted ‘‘a new era of relations’’ with the people of the rest of the world. He then switched to English and said with a smile: ‘‘I would like to say to the American people, I bring peace and friend- ship from Iranians to Americans.’’
A senior US official said the difficulty in arranging the handshake had been on the Iranian side.
‘‘We indicated that the two leaders could have had a discussion on the margins if the opportunity presented itself,’’ the official said. ‘‘The Iranians got back to us. It was clear that it was too complicated for them to do that at this time given their own dynamic back home.’’
The failed handshake was a sign of the difficulties the United States and Iran countries face in trying to seize a historic opening after decades of hostility.
Even a brief meeting would have been symbolically important given that it would have been the first face-to-face contact between US and Iranian heads of government since before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the USbacked shah.
Mr Rohani’s gestures since taking office last month, including agreeing to renew long-stalled talks with world powers on Iran’s nuclear programme, have raised hopes for a thaw in relations between Washington and Teheran after years of estrangement.
But even as Mr Obama welcomed signs of a ‘‘more moderate course’’ by Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the world should not be fooled by Mr Rohani’s ‘‘soothing words.’’ The Israeli leader said Iran was trying to mask its continued quest for a nuclear bomb, something Teheran denies it is seeking.
After Mr Rohani’s speech, the Israeli leader described the address as a ‘‘cynical’’ attempt to buy time to develop a nuclear- weapons capability.
Outside the United Nations complex, thousands of anti-Rohani demonstrators rallied on Tuesday against the new government in Teheran.
Mr Obama stressed that ‘‘conciliatory words’’ from Iran ‘‘will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable.’’
Scepticism about Mr Rohani’s intentions have cast doubt on the prospect for any immediate breakthrough between Washington and Teheran.
The Jewish state, believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed power, has long threatened military strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites if diplomacy fails.
Seeking to keep expectations under control, Mr Obama said suspicions between Iran and the United States were too great to believe their troubled history can be overcome overnight.
‘‘The roadblocks may prove to be too great but I firmly believe the diplomatic path must be tested,’’ Mr Obama said.
Mr Obama suggested though that Mr Rohani’s overtures could ‘‘offer the basis for a meaningful agreement’’ to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and said he had instructed Secretary of State John Kerry to press a diplomatic effort along with other world powers. He cited resolving the Iranian nuclear standoff and reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal as the key US objectives in the Middle East.
Mr Kerry and his counterparts from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany are due to meet Iran’s foreign minister today to discuss the nuclear issue.