At a meeting with influential editors and columnists today, Iranian President Rouhani urged the US not to see his refusal as a bad sign for negotiations.IransPresident Hassan Rouhaniexpanded his American charm offensive this morning, saying he was ready to alter decades of US-Iran hostility and that there was nothing we seek to hide about Irans controversial nuclear program.
In the past 35 years between theUSand Iran, both sides have made mistakes, the centrist cleric told a group of editors and columnists from leading American news organizations over breakfast in New York,a day after addressing the UN General Assembly.
Regardless of correct or incorrect measures, what we have before us is a conclusion that is not desirable, said Mr. Rouhani.
He said the fact that he did not end up shaking the hand ofPresident Barack Obamashould not be construed as a lack of interest in rapprochement. Thesymbolic act would have signaled a joint willingness to move toward dtente for the first time since Irans 1979 Islamic revolution.
There are no problems in terms of shaking Mr. Obamas hand and negotiating with him, Rouhani said. It was two days ago that the US proposed a meeting and we were not opposed. This is a very sensitive subject. We have not talked at that level for 35 years. We must take these steps carefully.
Senior administration officials said the possible handshake on the sidelines of theUNassembly which was built up by both sides yesterday as a distinct possibility proved too complicated for Iran at this time,given their own dynamic back home.
We are ready to negotiate, but we didnt have enough time to make that happen, said Rouhani. The handshake is a symbolic issue.
A top priority in New York for both Iran and the US has been to reinvigorate negotiations between Iran and six world powers over capping Iran's nuclear program so that it can never build a nuclear weapon an aim Iran publicly rejects. Six rounds of talks since early 2012 have so far yielded only stalemate.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has been tasked by Obama to closely follow up, starting with a meeting in New York tomorrow between the six world powers and Iran's US-educated foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.
Theres nothing we seek to hide, said Rouhani, adding all of Irans declared nuclear sites are under UN inspection and that Iran only wants its legal rights to enrich uranium, as specified by the international Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a signatory.
Forty countries are doing enrichment. We want nothing less, nothing more, said Rouhani.
Iran has long tried to normalize its nuclear program, remove UN resolutions requiring it to prove that its program is peaceful, and lift crippling US sanctions. Rouhani said restricting the levels of enrichment especially Irans work to 20 percent purity, which is a few technical steps from bomb-grade was negotiable.
Whether its 20 percent enrichment or 5 percent enrichment, all of those can be placed on the table and examined, said Rouhani. The endgame is the removal of everyones concerns, and the restoration of Irans rights to enrich uranium.
The Iranian president, who scored an upset victory against a host of conservative rivals in mid-June elections under the slogan of hope and prudence, also clarified his views on the Holocaust a historical event questioned by his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
The Nazis committed a crime in World War II. As to the scale of the massacres, and the numbers that my predecessor mentioned, lets leave that to the historians, said Rouhani. The Nazis carried a massacre that cannot be denied especially against the Jewish people, he said, calling it a horrendous crime.
By The Christian Science Monitor
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