In Tehran, Phone Call Between Presidents Is as Good as a Handshake
By THOMAS ERDBRINK
Published: September 27, 2013
TEHRAN — Night had fallen here in the Iranian capital as Hassan Rouhani, the new president of Iran, sent a message via his now-famous Twitter account: He had just gotten off the phone with President Obama, who had called him.
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First Top-Level U.S.-Iran Talk Since 1979 (September 28, 2013)
“Wow, this is fantastic,” said Armin Kay, an engineer reacting to the news. “The most important thing is that Obama took the initiative. This will go down really well with our leadership.”
It was the first direct conversation between leaders of Iran and the United States since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
In Iran, many had been disappointed when Mr. Rouhani failed to show up Tuesday at a United Nations luncheon, where he had been expected to shake hands with Mr. Obama. But the Friday call as Mr. Rouhani was heading to the airport to fly home to Iran, after four days of frenetic diplomacy in the United States, was almost as good as a handshake.
“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.
“After the positive meeting between the foreign ministers of Iran and the United States on Thursday, we could see this coming,” Mr. Mohebbian said in an interview, referring to Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Secretary of State John Kerry. “This was a polite farewell, a thank you for all the positivity from Iran.”
If talks on Iran’s nuclear program next month go well, he said, “we could witness a meeting after that.”
Another analyst close to Mr. Rouhani praised the phone call by Mr. Obama as “the best thing he could have done.” The analyst, Nader Karimi Joni, who works as a journalist and has been jailed for opposing the interests of hard-liners, said the call was a “verbal farewell for a V.I.P. guest, similar to seeing Mr. Rouhani off personally.”
The official Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, a 24-hour television channel, showed news of the meeting between Mr. Zarif and Mr. Kerry, but as of midnight Friday had not mentioned the phone conversation between the presidents.
The government’s Islamic Republic News Agency, however, prominently displayed the news on its Web site. “While President Rouhani was leaving New York for Tehran, President Obama called him, and both sides emphasized a quick solution for the nuclear problem,” it said. “They also considered the background for finding solutions for other issues and cooperation in regional issues. Both presidents asked their foreign ministers to pave the way for cooperation.”
Some Iranians said the immediate practical impact of the phone call could be a surge in the value of Iran’s currency, the rial, which has weakened to historic lows against the dollar in recent months because of the accumulated economic sanctions on Iran, imposed by the United States and European Union in response to the nuclear standoff.
“To be sure, the dollar will drop tomorrow against the rial,” Mr. Kay said.
Mr. Rouhani’s visit to the United Nations and his outreach to the United States government have not been greeted with universal approval or even acceptance in Iran, where suspicion toward Washington’s motives can always be found and Ayatollah Khamenei harbors a deep hostility toward America.
During the weekly Friday prayers in Tehran, one of the most important political platforms in the country, Ayatollah Mahmoud Emami Kashani repeated Mr. Obama’s words that the United States did not want to change the Iranian government. “Everybody knows it is impossible to topple the Islamic system. These are only rants,” said the ayatollah, who was appointed by Ayatollah Khamenei.
Before the prayers the official chanter referred to the “double standards of Obama,” which drew a familiar refrain from the crowd: “Death to America!”
The seemingly breathless momentum of the diplomacy, after decades of hostility and suspicion, was clearly taking some Iranians by surprise.
“Things are going really, really fast — faster than expected,” said Mostafa Afzalzadeh, a journalist for several conservative outlets. “It is shocking. I am really curious what people will say tomorrow.”
Others have been more philosophical, even a bit irreverent, about the possibility of reconciliation. Some Iranians have joked that a conversation between the two presidents would be between Hassan and Hussein, a reference to Mr. Rouhani’s given name and Mr. Obama’s middle name.
Both names are revered saints in the Shiite Muslim faith. ΝΥ Τimes
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