US-Iran diplomacy: Ayatollah expresses doubt
Iran’s supreme leader has expressed mixed feelings about his president’s recent diplomatic inroads with the United States. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei praised President Hassan Rouhani for diplomatic efforts he made during his trip over a week ago to the United Nations in New York.
The visit ended with a historic, ice-breaking conversation with U.S. President Barack Obama, who phoned Rouhani. It was the first time presidents of the two countries had spoken since 1979, and the tone was agreeable.
“We support the government’s diplomatic moves and consider them to be important. We also support what happened during the visit,” Khamenei said
During his stay, Rouhani was well-received and struck up a markedly more conciliatory tone than his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
However, the Iran supreme leader -Khamenei felt uncomfortable with some aspects of the trip. He said “Some of the things that took place during the trip to New York were not quite desirable,”
He described the aspect as “inappropriate,” Iran’s English language broadcaster Press TV reported him saying.
Part of the trip “wasn’t proper,” Khamenei said in a post to his official English language Twitter account.
It was the first time the supreme leader, who is the ultimate holder of power in Iran, commented publicly on Rouhani’s trip. He had no harsh words for his president, but he did for the United States.
“We are optimistic about our dear government’s diplomatic delegation, but we are pessimistic about the United States… The U.S. government is untrustworthy, egotistical and illogical and breaks its promises,” he said. He accused Washington of kowtowing to Israel and bending to its wishes.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to the U.N. General Assembly podium on October 1 to attempt to excitement that followed the news of the new diplomatic feat to curb it.
He accused the new Iranian president of being a “wolf in sheep’s skin” who was still seeking to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu urged world leaders not to be duped by Rouhani, calling him a “loyal servant” to the Islamic regime, which he said “executes political dissidents by the hundreds” and jails them by the thousands.
Netanyahu says he would talk to Rouhani
“It’s not hard to find evidence that Iran has a nuclear weapons program,” Netanyahu said. “It’s hard to find evidence that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program.”
Iran has long insisted that it is only interested in developing nuclear energy technology and has no intention of constructing nuclear weapons.
To many Iranians, Rouhani has seemed to be really advancing the “hope and prudence” slogan he used during his campaign to become president in June, posturing as a centrist and reformer against hardline conservative thinking that characterized Ahmadinejad.
But Rouhani has also met with criticism at home for his diplomatic tone toward the West. Upon his arrival back in Tehran, a detractor threw a shoe in his direction. It is an extremely insulting gesture