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Obama Speaks to President of Iran in First Talk Since 1979 Obama Speaks to President of Iran in First Talk Since 1979
(34 minutes later)
WASHINGTON — President Obama spoke by telephone with President Hassan Rouhani of Iran on Friday afternoon, the first direct conversation between leaders of the two estranged countries since the rupture of the Tehran hostage crisis more than three decades ago. WASHINGTON — The long fractured relationship between the United States and Iran took a significant turn on Friday when President Obama and President Hassan Rouhani became the first leaders of their countries to speak since the Tehran hostage crisis more than three decades ago.
Mr. Obama called the discussion an important breakthrough after a generation of deep mistrust and suggested that it could serve as the starting point to an eventual deal on Iran’s nuclear program and a broader renewal of relations between two countries that once were close allies. In a hurriedly arranged telephone call, Mr. Obama reached Mr. Rouhani as he was being driven to the airport to return to Iran after a whirlwind news media and diplomatic blitz in New York. The two agreed to accelerate talks aimed at defusing the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program and afterward expressed optimism at the prospect of a rapprochement that would transform the Middle East.
“The test will be meaningful, transparent and verifiable actions, which can also bring relief from the comprehensive international sanctions that are currently in place,” Mr. Obama told reporters. “Resolving this issue, obviously, could also serve as a major step forward in a new relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, one based on mutual interest and mutual respect.” “Resolving this issue, obviously, could also serve as a major step forward in a new relationship between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran, one based on mutual interests and mutual respect,” Mr. Obama, referring to Tehran’s nuclear program, told reporters at the White House after the 15-minute phone call. “It would also help facilitate a better relationship between Iran and the international community, as well as others in the region.”
Mr. Obama added: “A path to a meaningful agreement will be difficult. And at this point both sides have significant concerns that will have to be overcome. But I believe we’ve got a responsibility to pursue diplomacy and that we have a unique opportunity to make progress with the new leadership in Tehran.” On Twitter after the call, Mr. Rouhani wrote, “In regards to nuclear issue, with political will, there is a way to rapidly solve the matter.” He added that he told Mr. Obama, “We’re hopeful about what we will see from” the United States and other major powers “in coming weeks and months.”
The conversation took place just days after Mr. Rouhani declined to attend a lunch at the United Nations where American officials hoped the two presidents might shake hands. Mr. Rouhani suggested later that a meeting was premature and might actually jeopardize hopes of diplomatic progress. The conversation was the first between Iranian and American leaders since 1979 when President Jimmy Carter spoke by telephone with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi shortly before the shah left the country, according to Iran experts. The Islamic Revolution that toppled the shah’s government led to the seizure of the American Embassy and a 444-day hostage crisis that have left the two countries at odds with each other ever since.
But the telephone call on Friday reinforced optimism at the White House that Mr. Rouhani’s election in June may presage a new thinking in Tehran under the weight of crushing economic sanctions imposed in recent years. Secretary of State John Kerry engaged in direct talks on Thursday with his Iranian counterpart, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Mr. Obama said the two would pursue additional discussions in cooperation with allies. Although both Republican and Democratic presidents have reached out to Tehran in the interim, contact had been reserved to letters or lower-level officials.
The Iranian mission at the United Nations said the two presidents talked as Mr. Rouhani was in a car in New York heading to the airport. The call came just days after Mr. Obama had expected to encounter Mr. Rouhani at a luncheon at the United Nations where it was widely speculated that they would shake hands. Mr. Rouhani skipped the luncheon and later indicated it was premature to meet Mr. Obama. But a subsequent meeting on Thursday between Secretary of State John Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif of Iran was described as constructive and led Iranian officials to contact the White House on Friday to suggest the phone call, according to American officials.
“The Iranian and U.S. presidents underlined the need for a political will for expediting resolution of the West’s standoff with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program,” the mission said. The two presidents “stressed the necessity for mutual cooperation on different regional issues.” A senior Obama administration official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity, said the White House had expressed the president’s interest in meeting Mr. Rouhani to the Iranians this week but were surprised when they contacted the American side on Friday to suggest the phone call. Mr. Obama placed the call from the Oval Office around 2:30 p.m., joined by aides and a translator.
Recognizing the sensitivities of the conversation, Mr. Obama made a point of trying to reassure Israel that he would not sell out an ally’s security. “Throughout this process, we’ll stay in close touch with our friends and allies in the region, including Israel,” he told reporters after the phone call. He opened by congratulating Mr. Rouhani on his election in June and noted the history of mistrust between the two nations, but also what he called the constructive statements Mr. Rouhani had made during his stay in New York, according to the official.  The bulk of the call focused on the nuclear dispute, but Mr. Obama did apologize for New York traffic.
He added, “I do believe that there is a basis for resolution,” citing Mr. Rouhani’s comment that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons and reiterating his own “respect” for “the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy.” The call ended on a polite note, according to the official and Mr. Rouhani’s Twitter account.
The call came after Mr. Rouhani said in New York that his government would present a plan in three weeks on how to resolve the nuclear standoff. “I expect this trip will be the first step and the beginning of constructive relations with countries of the world,” he told a news conference. “Have a nice day,” Mr. Rouhani said in English.
“Thank you,” Mr. Obama replied, and then tried a Persian farewell. “Khodahafez.”
By talking over the phone instead of in person, Mr. Rouhani avoided a politically problematic photograph of himself alongside Mr. Obama, which could have inflamed hard-liners in Iran who were already wary of his outreach to the United States. As it was, conservative elements in Tehran tried to reinterpret his statements acknowledging the Holocaust while in New York. The state news channel, the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, had not mentioned the phone call with Mr. Obama as of midnight Friday after news of it broke.
But Mr. Rouhani’s office announced the call in a statement carried by the Iranian state news agency, and advisers said the conversation was a meaningful step.
“This voice contact has for now replaced the actual shaking of hands, but this is clearly the start of a process that could in the future lead to a face-to-face meeting between both leaders,” said Amir Mohebbian, a political adviser close to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Abbas Milani, an Iranian scholar at Stanford University, said Mr. Rouhani wanted to avoid looking like he was making concessions. “The U.S. and the West have wisely decided to allow the regime to make its claims of victory at home, so long as they play earnest ball in meetings abroad,” Mr. Milani said. A call to a leader on the way to the airport may not be normal protocol, he added, but “in this case it was adroit policy for both sides.”
American advocates of closer relations between the two countries were optimistic. “The phone call wasn’t just history,” said Joseph Cirincione, president of the Ploughshares Fund, an arms control group, who attended a dinner with Mr. Rouhani in New York. “It helped fundamentally change the course of Iranian-U.S. relations. We’re on a very different trajectory than we were even at the beginning of the week.”
But others expressed caution, arguing that Iran was reaching out only because of the sanctions that have strangled its economy.
“The economic pain now is sufficient to oblige a telephone call, though not a face-to-face meeting,” said Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former C.I.A. specialist who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “We will see whether the pain is sufficient for the Iranians to shut the heavy-water plant at Arak and reverse Iran’s path to a rapid breakout capacity with enriched uranium.”
Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the Republican majority leader, criticized Mr. Obama for not pressing Iran to halt its support for terrorism and Syria’s government. “It is particularly unfortunate that President Obama would recognize the Iranian people’s right to nuclear energy but not stand up for their right to freedom, human rights or democracy,” he said.
In announcing the call with Mr. Rouhani, Mr. Obama said that only “meaningful, transparent and verifiable actions” on the nuclear program could “bring relief” from sanctions.
“A path to a meaningful agreement will be difficult, and at this point, both sides have significant concerns that will have to be overcome,” he said. “But I believe we’ve got a responsibility to pursue diplomacy, and that we have a unique opportunity to make progress with the new leadership in Tehran.”
Recognizing the delicacy of the outreach effort, Mr. Obama made a point of trying to reassure Israel that he would not jeopardize an ally’s security. “Throughout this process, we’ll stay in close touch with our friends and allies in the region, including Israel,” he said.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel is scheduled to visit Mr. Obama at the White House on Monday.
Before leaving New York, Mr. Rouhani said that his government would present a plan in three weeks on how to resolve the nuclear standoff. “I expect this trip will be the first step and the beginning of constructive relations with countries of the world,” he said at a news conference.
He went on to say that he hoped the visit would also improve relations “between two great nations, Iran and the United States,” adding that the trip had exceeded his expectations.He went on to say that he hoped the visit would also improve relations “between two great nations, Iran and the United States,” adding that the trip had exceeded his expectations.
Mr. Rouhani and his aides have been on an extraordinarily energetic campaign to prove that they are moderate and reasonable partners and to draw a stark contrast with his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But Mr. Rouhani has yet to propose anything concrete to suggest how different the Iranians really are in their approach. The first glimpse of that is due to come on Oct. 15 and 16, when Iran plans to present its own road map. Mr. Rouhani and his aides have been on an extraordinarily energetic campaign to prove that they are moderate and reasonable partners and to draw a stark contrast with his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But Mr. Rouhani has yet to propose anything concrete to suggest how different the Iranians really are in their approach. The first glimpse of that is due to come on Oct. 15 and 16, when Iran plans to present its own road map in Geneva to American, European, Russian and Chinese diplomats.
Mr. Rouhani’s pronouncements this week painted a mixed picture. He has made clear that Iran plans to continue to enrich uranium for a civilian nuclear program and on several occasions said no country should have a nuclear arsenal, singling out Israel. But before the phone call, he attributed his failure to meet with Mr. Obama to a desire “to have a successful and effective meeting.” Mr. Rouhani repeatedly emphasized that his government had both the authority and the will to reach a nuclear settlement within what he called “a short period of time.” But he was visibly irritated when asked whether his diplomatic blitz was merely designed to buy time with his Western interlocutors.
He repeatedly emphasized that his government had both the authority and the will to reach a nuclear settlement within what he called “a short period of time.” But he was visibly irritated when asked whether his diplomatic blitz was merely designed to buy time with his Western interlocutors. “We have never chosen deceit as a path; we have never chosen secrecy,” he said. “We have never chosen deceit as a path,” he said. “We have never chosen secrecy.”
The last time an American president spoke with an Iranian leader was in 1979, when Jimmy Carter talked by telephone with Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi shortly before he left the country, according to an Iran expert. The last time the American and Iranian leaders met in person was on Dec. 31, 1977, when Mr. Carter and his wife, Rosalynn, spent New Year’s Eve as a guest of the shah. As he made a toast to the shah at a state dinner, Mr. Carter said the idea for the trip came from Mrs. Carter, when he asked her with whom she would like to celebrate the holiday.

Thomas Erdbrink contributed reporting from Tehran, Mark Landler from Washington and Somini Sengupta from the United Nations.

“We have no other nation on earth who is closer to us in planning for our mutual military security,” Mr. Carter said then. “We have no other nation with whom we have closer consultation on regional problems that concern us both. And there is no leader with whom I have a deeper sense of personal gratitude and personal friendship.”
Less than two years later, after an Islamic revolution ousted the shah, an angry crowd overran the American Embassy in Tehran, holding 52 Americans hostage for 444 days and plunging relations between Iran and the United States into a deep freeze from which they have yet to emerge.

Mark Landler contributed reporting from Washington, and Somini Sengupta from the United Nations.