Iran President Rouhani’s English-language message to the American people
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday delivered his first English-language TV message to the American people in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour.
● "I would like to say to American people: I bring peace and friendship from Iranians to Americans."
Rouhani is in many ways the "it" man of this U.N. General Assembly, where Western leaders are trying to gauge whether his diplomatic overtures will translate into concrete policy changes. He has recently exchanged letters with U.S. President Barack Obama, and there had been suspicion brewing in diplomatic circles that the two leaders would meet face-to-face, informally, at the United Nations in New York. "There were some talks about it," Rouhani told Amanpour through a translator. "And preparation for the work was done a bit as well." "The United States declared its interest in having such a meeting, and in principle Iran could have under certain circumstances allowed for it to happen," he said. "But I believe we didn't have sufficient time to really coordinate the meeting to the full extent that we needed to." Two senior U.S. administration officials told CNN on Tuesday that the encounter was called off because it was considered "too complicated" for Iran back home.
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