US President Barack Obama has revealed an exchange of letters with Iran’s new President Hassan Rouhani. In an interview aired on Sunday, Obama confirmed the outreach to Rouhani and said he believed the Syrian chemical arms deal showed that diplomacy could work if backed by threats of military action. A report by the French news agency AFP indicated that the exchange of letters added to the notion that the election of Rouhani could offer a new opening for a diplomatic solution to the conflict over Iran’s nuclear program.
On Monday, the British newspaper ‘The Guardian’ speculated about a possible meeting between Obama and Rouhani at the United Nations in New York next week in what would be the first face-to-face encounter between a US and Iranian leader since Iran's 1979 revolution.
The UK’s Foreign Secretary William Hague will also meet Rouhani as well as his Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif, at the UN General Assembly meeting. Tehran took the British Foreign Office by surprise, tweeting on Rouhani's English-language feed that the president would also be prepared to meet Hague, something the UK had not even requested. "Tehran has responded positively to UK's request. President Rouhani's meeting w/WilliamJHague on the sidelines of UNGA has been confirmed," the tweet said. "We would be happy to meet," a Foreign Office spokeswoman said, "but we have had nothing formal from Tehran about it."
The same Twitter account, which is apparently run in Rouhani's name, was used two weeks ago to wish "all Jews" a happy Rosh Hashana.
